# Distilling For Personal Use. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 10, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251 "2011-08-10T20:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/21 "2011-08-10T23:21:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That assumes that you actually _know_ that what you are being given is home distilled. Hey, if you won’t take charge of what you’re going to put into your own body, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not in the habit of drinking just anything that someone puts in my hand, without trying to determine what the hell it is first. I feel that the risk of someone not as vigilant, or lied to, who inadvertently poisons themselves, is better addressed through the tort (or criminal justice, depending on the facts) system than outright banning the endeavor. I like **Oakminster** ’s thoughts on the matter, “Consenting adults ought to be able to consume anything they like, so long as they do so in a manner that doesn’t put others in danger.” In the case of consuming 'shine, I’d assess how competent I thought the distiller was, and how the beverage smelled, stuff like that. Whether it was pleasurable enough to offset the risk, that sort of thing. My own dumb ass would shoulder most of the blame if I ended up getting blind from the stuff (which I understand requires a large dosage or the adulteration that **randomface** alluded to, like the[Austrian Diethylene Glycol wine scandal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_diethylene_glycol_wine_scandal).) **asterion** , could you tell composition by the specific gravity of what was coming off the still? I don’t know. I’ve never distilled. Is there a simple reagent test, or one shot test strip sort of thing that’s available? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/22 "2011-08-10T23:25:17Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > …and is it possible to make fuel grade alcohol from a simple still?.. I haven’t watched, The Colony, but not only is it possible to make motor fuel from a still, [the Federal Government will give you money (as a tax credit) to do so](http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/transportation/trans-18.cfm). > [@](#): > > Small Ethanol Producer Tax Credit. Current law provides for an **income tax credit of 10¢ per gallon** ($4.20 per barrel) for up to 15 million gallons of annual ethanol production **by a small ethanol producer, defined as one with ethanol production capacity of less than 30 million gallons per yea** r (about 2,000 barrels per day). This credit, which was enacted as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-508), is strictly a production tax credit available only to the manufacturer who sells the alcohol to another person for blending into a qualified mixture in the buyer’s trade or business, for use as a fuel in the buyer’s trade or business, or for sale at retail where such fuel is placed in the fuel tank of the retail customer. Casual off-farm production of ethanol does not qualify for this credit. The small ethanol producer credit is limited in the same way as the blender’s tax credit. The amount of the credit is reduced to take into account any excise tax exemption claimed on ethanol output and sales. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/23 "2011-08-10T23:37:04Z")
People have been home distilling around the world for centuries and it hasn’t caused the downfall of civilization yet. Some smart regulation may be required but there’s no real inherent reason to stop it. ---
**Author:** ![Found\_In\_Translation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ebca7d/32.png) [@Found\_In\_Translation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Found_In_Translation)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/24 "2011-08-10T23:37:40Z")
Maybe a compromise would be possible like we have around here: You make your own mash by collecting and fermenting fruit from the garden (plums, pears, apples, cherries or other fruit) and then take it to one of the many small distilleries where a professional distills it. (These guys are mostly wine growers who inherited the burn rights and do the distilling in the winter when the rest of the business is slow.) This has a number of upsides: - You get to have your own spirits, made from your own fruit so you know exactly what’s in your liquor. - There is no health risk (other than from drinking alcohol) because the distilling is done by an expert. - The state gets its cut of taxes because these distilleries have to document how much they burn. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/25 "2011-08-10T23:38:32Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Hey, if you won’t take charge of what you’re going to put into your own body, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t carry a chemistry lab around with me. Nor can I run a trace on the history of everything I drink or eat. Which is why I prefer to have the government take care of such matters, since it does have chemistry labs and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/26 "2011-08-10T23:45:12Z")
I asked for a cite of it actually hurting someone. I understand that there are possible dangers. There are possible dangers in anything you can do on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/27 "2011-08-10T23:46:55Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I don’t carry a chemistry lab around with me. Nor can I run a trace on the history of everything I drink or eat. Which is why I prefer to have the government take care of such matters, since it does have chemistry labs and so forth. How is this an argument that distilling should be illegal? People like you can choose to only buy from the government, other people can do as they wish. What exactly gives people like you the right to force this Nanny-state nonsense onto the whole population based upon your personal paranoia? If you want the Nanny-state to take care of you, you can easily do so. Your Fascism starts to show when you want to force others to live by your paranoid insecurities. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/28 "2011-08-10T23:54:40Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > People like you can choose to only buy from the government, other people can do as they wish. What exactly gives people like you the right to force this Nanny-state nonsense onto the whole population based upon your personal paranoia? The fact that people endanger others by doing things like this, of course. And because I don’t think that “distilling rights” are important enough for people to be crippled for them. I’ve noticed how in arguments like this “rights” only go one way; you have the right to do whatever you like, but other people don’t have a right not to be crippled or killed in the process. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/29 "2011-08-11T00:04:33Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It should be allowed, it’s really a basic procedure that man has been doing for centuries. Well, sure, but should people be allowed to distill on Sundays??? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/30 "2011-08-11T00:09:18Z")
Maybe we could simply label home distilling products with a really scary warning? “Cape does not allow user to fly.” Seems odd that the main reason to ban this act is that it _might_ cause blindness _if_ done wrong. But then cigarettes _will_ cause death and the government is perfectly happy to allow that. So let’s allow home distilling but put a big scary picture of a blind hillbilly on the package. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/31 "2011-08-11T00:10:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The fact that people endanger others by doing things like this, of course. So you get to decide what risks other people are allowed to accept. Gotcha. > [@](#): > > And because I don’t think that “distilling rights” are important enough for people to be crippled for them. \*And \*you get to decide which rights are important. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > I’ve noticed how in arguments like this “rights” only go one way; you have the right to do whatever you like, but other people don’t have a right not to be crippled or killed in the process. Nonsense. I just stated explicitly that you have every right to only buy from the Nanny-state if that is what you wish. You just claimed that buying from the state with all its cool machines-that-go-ping will mean that you do not get crippled or killed. You still have that right regardless of whether home-distilling is legal. We do not wish to remove that right from you. Nobody is forcing you not to buy from the state. Nobody will lock you in jail for buying form the state. You, however, do wish to force me not to make my own. You do wish to lock me up for making my own. You have every right to take whatever steps you like to avoid being crippled or killed. The rights only go one under \*your \*totalitarian standard. Under our proposal you have the right to do whatever you like, and we have the right to do whatever you like. Only under your Nanny-state nonsense is one group deprived of its rights. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/32 "2011-08-11T00:21:26Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > SNonsense. I just stated explicitly that you have every right to only buy from the Nanny-state if that is what you wish. With one minor nitpick that **Der Trihs** will have to wait until he/she is over the federally defined age limit before he/she will have the right to purchase alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/33 "2011-08-11T01:02:16Z")
People are already running illegal stills. My part of the country is notorious for it. Some of them are as expert as anyone in a licensed commercial distillery. If anything, they’re limited by their equipment and the need for discretion. Others, of course, are not so expert. Illegality impedes teaching, learning and implementing proper and safe techniques. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/34 "2011-08-11T01:25:15Z")
My grandfather told me that to test moonshine, you take a teaspoonful of it and light it on fire. If it burns with a clean blue flame, it’s good. If it burns orange, it’s bad. I don’t know if there is any truth to that, but that’s what the old time moonshiners used to do. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/35 "2011-08-11T01:47:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That assumes that you actually _know_ that what you are being given is home distilled. I’m not sure what circumstances would occur where you didn’t… You’d have to take a drink from someone you couldn’t trust, without seeing it being poured. If someone poured me, say, a rum and coke, I’d know by the taste if it wasn’t rum in there. I don’t think a single sip of a mixed drink would blind me, even if it’s not been correctly distilled. If you _do_ go around taking unknown drinks from random strangers, there’s a lot more to worry about than it possibly being home distilled! ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/36 "2011-08-11T02:11:37Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > IIf someone poured me, say, a rum and coke, I’d know by the taste if it wasn’t rum in there. No, you wouldn’t. Home-distilled rum is home-distilled _rum_. It’s indistinguishable from factory distilled rum. The same as you can’t distinguish home brew beer from factory beer. However if we are going to stop people producing goods because they might offer them to someone, who might then mistake them for a commercial product, then we are going to have to ban people from producing food of any sort. After all, somebody could give Der Trihs a sandwich, and he would have no idea if the ham, lettuce, bread and butter are all from Nanny-state Industries ™ or if they are all home made. And far more people die and are crippled every year from food poisoning than from alcohol. Therefore we need to make it a felony for people to produce food. After all, people endanger others by producing food. I assume Der Trihs is going to get on board with my push to ban food production. After all, it is motivated by \*exactly \*the same concerns as his push to keep distilling lillegal, and it harms far more people than distilling ever has. So I propose that only the Nanny-state should be able to produce food. Anybody who is is unlicenced by the state will be committing a felony if they produce food. OK Trihs? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/37 "2011-08-11T02:15:48Z")
We allow people to _cook_ at home and improper procedure while cooking can lead to ecoli, salmonella and botulism poisoning. We even allow people to invite others into their house and serve cooked food! If they want to sell that food, there’s usually some minimal amount of regulation necessary but the system seems to be working pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/38 "2011-08-11T02:29:20Z")
I’ve often considered making my own still. There’s companies all over the internet that will sell you stills, like the [Amphora Scoiety.](http://www.amphora-society.com/) From the reading I have done on the subject, it’s virtually impossible to harm yourself with methanol poisoning. The stuff with lower boiling points than EtOH come out together (the ‘heads’). The heads apparently smell and taste terrible. In order to drink enough of a dose to harm you, you’d have to force yourself to drink a substance that smells and tastes like turpentine. The EtOH you get off of a reflux still should be pretty much laboratory grade - no smell or taste. Knowing the above, anyone doing this is going to be watching the thermometer (the temp in the column should give you a good idea of when the good stuff is ready to come out) and will discard anything that has a smell. Apparently it is possible to make ~15L of 40% vodka from nothing more than 10kg of sugar, baker’s yeast and water. Although it is illegal in canada, I have read some articles stating that the cops will not even respond to a tip that someone is operating a still - unless they’re trying to sell the product. In which case they get their equipment seized and have to pay a $575 fine. New Zealand legalized home distilling in 1996 and sales of hard liquor actually increased. Screw it, I’m making a still 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/39 "2011-08-11T02:45:50Z")
> [@Nunavut\_Boy](#): > > Although it is illegal in canada, I have read some articles stating that the cops will not even respond to a tip that someone is operating a still - unless they’re trying to sell the product. In which case they get their equipment seized and have to pay a $575 fine. Much the same is true in Australia. In most states it is technically illegal to operate a still, yet stills are sold openly in every home-brew shop in the country, along with instruction manuals. They are also advertised. The whole thing is very nudge-nudge wink-wink so long as you don’t sell the product, and once again, the penalty is a slap on the wrist. I have never heard of anybody being injured form drinking home-made spirits, although a few people did go blind about 15 years ago by drinking imported spirits that had been contaminated. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251/40 "2011-08-11T02:48:09Z")
Of course it should be legal. When I wanted to start driving, I was required to take a test to prove I knew what I was doing. I also have to carry that certification with me at all times that proves I know how to operate a machine that kills 30 to 40 thousand people a year. Home distillation could be handled in a similar fashion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-for-personal-use/592251.md?page=3)