Posted on 09/06/2017 8:19:52 PM PDT by ForYourChildren
Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978.
In the aftermath of its failure to pass a health-care overhaul, Congress appears poised to turn to tax reform. While income and corporate tax rates will likely garner most of the attention, alcohol producers are also hoping for changes to booze taxes. Specifically, brewer, vintners, and distillers have been pushing on Capitol Hill for the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which would lower federal excise taxes on alcohol.
Despite attracting nearly 300 co-sponsors in the House and more than 50 in the Senate, the bill has failed to get a vote in recent sessions of Congress. There’s renewed hope for the act this year—perhaps as part of a larger tax overhaul—but the current version of the bill is missing a key feature of previous iterations: the legalization of home distilling. Whereas the 2015 version of the act included a provision that would have permitted distillation of up to 24 proof gallons per year for personal consumption, that provision has been stripped from the new version of the bill.
Americans Can Already Brew Some Kinds of Alcohol
Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed legislation allowing Americans to produce limited amounts of beer and wine for personal consumption. Nearly 40 years later, many beer industry analysts have argued that Carter’s home brewing reform was a key factor in the meteoric rise of the craft beer movement.
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(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
“A matter of State laws, not federal.”
There ARE states that set a limit on the amount one can produce but NOT SELL. Have a good friend that has been doing that for years but nothing has ever been said about not “giving it away”, to my knowledge.
You say that like it's a bad thing. ;-)
With regard to home-brewed beer, the federal rules state the production is limited to personal use (includes family/friends/co-workers), thus it cannot be sold. Limit is 100 gallons per calendar year for households with one adult (anyone over 18 for federal law), and 200 gallons per year with households with two or more adults.
Federal law also allows the removal of homebrew from the premises where it was brewed. Some states still restrict the consumption of home brew to the premises where it was brewed.
Here is a link to the rules for California - https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrewing-rights/statutes/California/. Basically the same as feds, but restricts adult to being 21 or older.
Plenty of people doing it where I am - or once was - or will be - I don’t recall
Seems ironic that a brewer would need a distilling license to create no-alcohol beer.
“Maybe not, but I still can’t find the power over alcohol give to the Feds in the Constitution.”
It’s a perfectly Constitutional excise tax. Google up The Whiskey Rebellion.
L
“Not in this case, it’s all about control. You can’t do it.
It’s not about taxation.”
It is about taxation. In FL you just have to pay the $4000 state tax to do so.
I think it’s a holdover from Prohibition. Besides, the gumment has to get their cut on excise tax.
“It’s a perfectly Constitutional excise tax.”
Just like guns.
No guns for you.
“Whiskey Rebellion or something like that.”
Yeah. New government put a tax on distilled spirits. West of the Appalachians whiskey was used as currency. The fed. tax in effect taxed all financial transactions in the Ohio river valley hence the revolt. Distiller and CIC Washington used troops to put it down, leading them himself.
“You don’t know much about early American history, our founding fathers, and taxes.”
You don’t know much about the Constitution and the 10th Amendment in particular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
You remember correctly. What happened in 1978 was that home-brew beer was made legal. Wine was made legal earlier, but a quirk in the law kept beer making illegal.
It remains common enough around here and Ive never heard of anyone around here getting sick.
I really dont horse with it. I brew beer and make wine and mead, I occasionally freeze distill a small bit of strong apfelkorn type drink. I do wish I could find grandma's recipe though.
I checked this out.
Questions!
You had yours long?
Seems to be reliable?
I hate buying chinese stuff with it only to crap out in six months.
Thanks for the home brew legal info.!
I never had a problem for as long as I used it. It’s basically a version of the table top water distiller sold through various names. They say it heats up to a lower range to allow the alcohol to distill out rather than the water. Alcohol becomes a vapor at 172 degrees or so if I remember right. Water of course boils at 212 degrees but becomes a vapor somewhere around 200-208.
In my humble opinion it doesn’t really matter that much if you use the so-called water distiller or the so-called alcohol distiller because both will distill the alcohol first. If your product ends up being 80-90 proof rather 110; it just means you will get more product at what most alcohol is sold at.
If you want it stronger; put some through a second time to raise the percentage/proof level. If you keep an eye on ebay; you can find the water distillers used for much cheaper. I recommend this for people who just want to play with it for a while to see what it’s like. If a person wants to take it up to the next level; that site I mentioned, and others, have more expensive and more involved equipment to do so. Just be sure to throw away that first part of every batch because it will make people go blind. I don’t know if it alters the taste but it’s methanol and not the drinking ethanol.
The goal is to make a tasty drink; not the most powerful although most people do make an extra batch of the kicker 180 proof just to have it around to offer those who just have to try it at that level. Mason jars work great for this.
Good info. Thanks!
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