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.
Y’all know the risk of home distillers blinding themselves via methanol poisoning is way higher than the risk of them blowing themselves up, right?
Not really, it’s the exact opposite. There isn’t any more methanol in small scale shine than there is in homebrew beer. The risk is if you make a large enough batch that you can get a full bottle of just heads, and then decide to drink that for whatever reason. But even at moderate scales, that’s not going to happen.
Yeah, but an explosion would be incredibly rare, too. So rare that I think even the “get a full bottle of just heads and then decide to drink that for whatever reason” would still manage to be more likely.
Only if you use fruits. Grain or sugar has very little methanol when fermented
That’s actually a myth, grain and sugar mash produce very little methanol, way below the harmful amount. Fruit mash can produce harmful amounts, but can be easily mitigated. Most cases of methanol poisoning are from people purposefully consuming it or from alcohol that has been adulterated with methanol - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_methanol_poisoning_incidents
You know the treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol? As long as you’re tossing the fore shots and not putting them into a sour mash you’re fine.