Hobby Distilling Should Be Legal in the U.S.

In July, Mark Pittman, a federal judge in Texas, ruled that two U.S. laws that prohibit home distilling are unenforceable since they exceed the powers granted to Congress under the Constitution.

Since I’m not a lawyer, I won’t attempt to parse the interpretation of regulations forbidding home distillation, but in the case Hobby Distillers Association v. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, lawyers for HAD convinced the judge that government overreach is keeping its members from making hooch at home. Again, since the legalese is way over my head, my only comment on this development is this: It’s about time.

In 2015, a British publisher hired me to write a book on home distilling. Since I knew nothing about the subject, I spent much time talking to people who did. Ultimately, I was convinced that the ban against home distilling in the U.S. wasn’t, as many believe, about the safety of practice or product. It was about the feds not wanting to miss out on a penny of revenue.

“It’s just fun to sit around with friends and make whiskey, sip what you made last time and look forward to what’s in the still.”

On a small, hobbyist scale, the practice is simple, safe, and rewarding for those who have the patience to do it. A common statement made was, “It’s just fun to sit around with friends and make whiskey, sip what you made last time and look forward to what’s in the still.”

The hardware to accomplish this feat ranges from tiny 2-liter stills—which you heat on a hotplate—to 250-gallon pot stills heated over propane burners. Those who used the smaller equipment were often “doing it to see if I could do it,” and the folks with the bigger stills usually did it for a host of reasons: family tradition, fun, experimentation, and, you guessed it, for sale to others. Understandably, that’s where the government has a reasonable beef. But for this discussion, we’ll stick to hobbyists only.

When I last researched the subject nine years ago, New Zealand was the only country in the world allowing home distilling. When it became legal to do so in 1994, makers and sellers of spirits there thought sales would decline, and makers of home distilling equipment thought a boom time was coming.

But neither scenario developed because people interested in home distilling were already doing it illegally. People didn’t shift from store-bought spirits to home hooch, and those already into the practice didn’t need new equipment.

The rules for home distilling in New Zealand are sensible. If you make it at home, you drink it and serve it at home. One source said, “Don’t even dare to hand a bottle of it over your fence to a neighbor. That’s illegal. Have him over, serve him your spirits, but don’t let him take anything with him.” Back then, NZ was into its 21^st year with home distilling, and Kiwis were no worse for it.

This was perhaps the most compelling and oft-given argument that most people will never attempt to distill at home: It takes time, the purchase of raw ingredients that aren’t readily available, it’s a messy and less-than-aromatic practice, it takes a fair amount of space to do on a larger scale, and it takes some practice to make good liquor. And don’t forget, it isn’t even aged.

In 2015, the president of the HDA estimated that about 200,000 Americans were making illegal liquor for a hobby. How did he know that? He legally sold equipment with which to make it. Apparently, people like to distill perfume and their own water at home—or just claim to others that they’re doing that—and his is one of a handful of outlets for that.

Here’s one fact I’ve not seen in news coverage of this story: Home distilling as a commercial enterprise was legal in the U.S. until 1862. Colonists had done it for nearly two centuries, but the feds decided they wanted a cut of the income, and the Revenue Act was established. To be fair, anything we make these days is taxable, so why not a product made on a farm that would be sold?

But as a hobby, I see no problem with putzing around making a little hooch for you and your friends. I hope this recent ruling will serve to allow home distilling across the U.S. No denying that it’s American.