A U.S. appeals court on Friday declared unconstitutional a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the nonprofit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members.
They argued that people should be free to distill spirits at home, whether as a hobby or for personal consumption including, in one instance, to create an apple-pie-vodka recipe.
The ban was part of a law passed during Reconstruction in July 1868, in part to thwart liquor tax evasion, and subjected violators to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
So long as they’re doing it for personal use and being safe enough to not blow up the neighborhood, I don’t care. If they wanna sell for others to consume then obviously that’s a whole other thing.
It’s the “being safe enough” part that’s the problem. How do you regulate that? Do you really believe that the average American is capable of operating something as dangerous as a still in a completely safe manner?
If we were talking about homebrewing, yeah, absolutely, that shit is awesome and there is no good argument against. Home distilling is basically building a bomb and hoping that it doesn’t go off before you get wrecked enough on moonshine to notice it happening.
looks at instant pot
Y-you know…
I have a neighbor who parks his stupid Cybertruck in his garage every day. Google “Tesla explosion”. Another neighbor has a Toyota overland build truck, he has an exposed 5 gallon propane tank on the back and 20 gallons of fuel tanks on the sides, it just sits there waiting to detonate. Google “Home gas explosion”. Another neighbor puts his Giant Turkey fryer on his balcony and frys a huge turkey every thanksgiving. Google “Turkey fryer explosion”. The old guy across from me home builds black powder rifles as a hobby. He has at least a 50 pounds of black powder stored in his workshop. Google “Black powder explosion”. The kids get picked up in a school bus with 100 gallons of CNG on it. Google "CNG explosion ". The 7-11 at the end of the block has an open cage filled with propane tanks, many returns that may not have the current safety valves on them. Minimum wage employees are in charge of this and the local crackheads stand right by it, smoking cigarettes. Google “propane tank explosion”. Most of the houses in my neighborhood were built 40-50 years ago, they all have water heaters. Many have no Tpr valve, improper venting, ect. Google “water heater explosion”. I guess you might be right, we need way more laws and regulations to protect us from from the bombs all around us.
My grandma did it for decades and didn’t blow anyone up. Nobody went blind either. You make it sound like it’s making a McNuke in your kitchen
My great uncle Joe survived the entirety of WW2 despite being thrown into some of the worst fighting imaginable. This proves that war is completely safe for everyone involved.
Yeah man, its not that hard to do. I remain unexploded having cobbled together my “still”.
Create safety standards for small commercially manufactured stills. Most people are lazy, so those will significantly outnumber more sketchy DIY stuff. We have safety standards for other dangerous items like propane tanks, and they reduce the risk to a level most people find acceptable.
There is no such thing. There’s a level of risk society finds acceptable. If a still can be as safe as a propane grill, I’m happy.
And if it could be as safe as a propane grill I would have no objections. But those things are orders of magnitude apart in terms of relative safety levels.
Do you have a source for that claim? I found this source suggesting otherwise; in New Zealand, where home distilling is legal and there wouldn’t be a reason to hide it, less than 0.14% of residential fires were caused by home distilling.
You know freedom means you can blow yourself up… not everyone lives in an apartment complex