In this thread, many claimed that manufacturing hard alcohol for your own consumption without a license is illegal, and eventually respected mod bibliophage closed it.
So my question is: where is it cited as illegal, and if it is (in case you couldn’t guess, I’m doubtful), why?
Note that I’m specifically not (nor was the OP in general) asking about moonshine, rather alchol that is harder than say wine.
Peach Schnapps, for example, is around 23% alcohol. I won’t confess to making it here, as I’d hate to admit my hardended criminal past, and I won’t confess that in a week, my now full-peach tree may be well on its way towards contributing to the general moral decay of friends and family, but at least I want to see this supposed crime in writing.
This isn’t intended as a dig at anybody by the way. It’s intended as a factual question.
To expand - the making of liqueurs by the infusion of flavorings into store-bought alcohol is perfectly legal. I myself make quite a few different schnapps out of fruit and Everclear. But private distillation of consumable alcohol is heavily regulated, and ATFE have no sense of humor, nor do they issue warnings.
As for the “why” portion of your question, the cynic in me says it’s because the government makes money off of licensing fees and taxation. The more civic-minded side of me says that it has to do entirely with the safety and quality issues.
Well, if I’m reading the ATF site right, you can distill peach schnapps at home perfectly legally–as long as it’s for fuel. But you still have to fill out a bunch of paperwork.
And it seems like a waste of peaches.
As to the “why” of its being illegal–it’s all about taxes. Read the ATF clickthrough on “How to set up your own distillery legally”–it’s all about taxes.
I’m sure there’s at least some motivation to prevent it just based on the fact that distillation is somewhat difficult and people who do it by themselves tend to go blind and die. You do it wrong, and you end up with something that’s not entirely ethanol.
a) holy crap! What a crock that whole thing is.
b) looks like what I was doing (I can come clean now) is not illegal.
I basically mash up peaches, strain heavily, add sugar, vodka and other goodies, then wait several months. There’s no distilling involved, in my process at least.
Oddly enough, I had a discussion on this topic just yesterday. See, a bit north of the family farm is an area heavily populated by Ukrainians. Now, I don’t want to paint with broad brushstrokes, but let’s just say that a there are a few old Ukrainian farmers up there who like their vodka. Everyone up there has a few bottles of “the good stuff”, which, let me assure you, doesn’t come from Smirnoff or Absolut. For one thing, it burns a lot better than regular 80 proof vodka. What’s really odd is that nobody knows who makes it. You ask them where it comes from, and they say they’re just don’t know who’s making it. So and so used to, but he’s 84 now and slowing down. And this other guy was known to run a still, but it’s been years and years since he did. Etc. Good for a chuckle, anyways.
But I’ve never heard of anyone from that neck of the woods suffering from methyl alcohol poisoning. May have happened, I guess, but they seem to be pretty good with the quality control.