As reported this week in The Guardian:
A US appeals court on Friday declared a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling to be unconstitutional, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.The fifth US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the non-profit 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 the US’s post-civil war Reconstruction era 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...
More information at the link. Image cropped for size from the original, credit Diana Vyshniakova/Alamy.
It seems the law banning home brewing was unconstitutional, not the home brewing itself. Headline for the post is misleading?
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. Title amended accordingly. Thanks, Bicycle Rider.
Delete"Brewing" (making alcohol through the fermentation of sugars) and "distilling" (concentrating the product of brewing into stronger liquor) are both functionally and legally distinct. Distilling has been historically more strictly regulated, which is what the case in this post is about.
ReplyDeleteHomebrewing has been largely legalized/decriminalized in most US jurisdictions for quite a while, but there are a lot of goofy state/local laws made around Prohibition that technically curtail the practice. E.g., until 2009, in Washington state it was legal to homebrew, but it wasn't legal to leave your house with it (functionally outlawing homebrew clubs). Many of these laws have been repealed by now, and essentially none of them are being enforced.
Thank you, Rob. I've changed the title again, and now the entire post seems less significant than when I first saw the news.
Delete