I've said it before and I'll say it again: Distilling your own liquor should be LEGAL!!

[LostInAnomie]

There is no reason it should still be illegal. There's technology to prevent people from poisoning themselves. Liquor is cheap enough that there wouldn't really be that much of a market for it. As long as no one is selling it the government won't be cheated out of taxes.

I want to make liquor, damn it!

[trackfan]

1. I wouldn't be as worried about poisoning myself, as I would of the thing blowing up.

I suppose if they manufactured a good quality still that wouldn't blow up, it'd be okay.

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. thats a good point...

I've seen some of those moonshine stills on TV and all I know is that I wouldn't want to be standing so close by when somebody was cooking up White Lightning over an open flame :nuke:

[Fox Mulder]

3. It wouldn't stop me.

Legal or not...If I knew how to do it, I would definitely do it.

[LostInAnomie]

4. Let me put it this way.

I've seen it done quite a few times, and it's definitely not hard.

[Inchworm]

5. it ain't legal?

err.. I mean the legalness is not as not unclear as the undoing of the container.. or some dang thing.

:shrug:

[conscious evolution]

6. It should be legal

A few years ago some friends got into the homebrew beer craze and all started brewing up at home.
One friend decided to be different and made a small stove top still.For moonshine it wasn't half bad.

[NewWaveChick1981]

7. It's all about the revenue from taxes...

:rofl: :P Goldang revenooers!

[cobalt1999]

8. My uncles used to operate a still back in the 50's.

A large one too. According to dad, the vat had a 5ft diameter and they produced 100's of gallons of the stuff before the federal authorities destroyed it. Local police tipped the family off and no one was ever arrested.

A great book on this is The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty by William Hogeland.

A summary from Amazon:

Soon after Americans ousted inequitable British taxation, Secretary of Finance Alexander Hamilton, hatched a plan to put the new nation on steady financial footing by imposing the first American excise tax, on whiskey makers. The tax favored large distillers over small farmers with stills in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, and the farmers fomented their own new revolution—a challenge to the sovereignty of the new government and the power of the wealthy eastern seaboard. In a fast-paced, blow-by-blow account of this "primal national drama," journalist Hogeland energetically chronicles the skirmishes that made the Whiskey Rebellion from 1791 to 1795 a symbol of the conflict between republican ideals and capitalist values. The rebels engaged in civil disobedience, violence against the tax collectors and threatened to secede from the new republic. Eventually Washington led federal troops to quell the rebellion, arresting leaders such as Herman Husband, a hollow-eyed evangelist who believed that the rebellion would usher in the New Jerusalem. Hogeland's judicious, spirited study offers a lucid window into a mostly forgotten episode in American history and a perceptive parable about the pursuit of political plans no matter what the cost to the nation's unity

[outofbounds]

9. Your not

not distilling liquor my man, you are making Ethanol to run you lawn equipment. wink wink

[patricia92243]

10. Homebrew and white lightening are different things - both homemade. Which one do you want to make?

I would think the homebrew would be easy to make.

[seemunkee]

11. Good quality stills are available

If you look hard enough. Its legal in New Zealand and you can get hold of some of the NZ stills.

[wildhorses]

12. one can make wine and beer for one's own consumption --

why not liquor? here! here! i agree:patriot:

:toast:


:beer:

[dembotoz]

13. great local party fund raiser

take the concept of a chili cook off to a new level.

I feel hung over already

[XemaSab]

14. I had some rum a friend of a friend made

Oh MY it was tasty.... you could just sit there and sip it. :9

[skygazer]

15. It doesn't make a lot of sense

As for taxes, if people did want to sell it, there's no reason they shouldn't be allowed to do that as long as they paid the taxes.

One of those silly leftover laws, I suppose. After all, you can make your own beer and wine - why not liquor?

[supernova]

16. You can make your own liqueurs too

brandies, etc. I've contemplated doing this for things like home made xmas presents. And I still might.