Distilling

[JesterODX]

I've often said I wanted to know how to produce alcohol at home. I think knowing how to make shine would be bennificial in the event of SHTF. So I started looking around at the home brewery's for beer on the ebay. And decided what they heck, lets search moonshine. Unknown to me, they sell stills on ebay. Which its perfectly legal to buy or build a still for distilling water and plant extracts and so forth. I had just never thought about people selling them on ebay.

I'm looking at getting one of the home brewerys and possibly a still. Distilling is an old family tradition. My great grand father had the last still blown up in this county by the sheriff during prohibition. He also had the first still blown up after prohibition. He probably had the last still blown up before prohibition. It was a way of life back then. It supplimented the farming income.

Now question, I've done a little searching and will do a decent bit more. What are the legalities for production of alcohol for self consumption?

[Doctorr Fabulous]

http://abc.nc.gov/permits/commercial_kinds.aspx#GS18B1105a
You would be required, as far as I can google, to become a commercial distillery, at which time you must apply for the $300 dollar permit and meet the ABC regs.

[Clout]

http://abc.nc.gov/permits/commercial_kinds.aspx#GS18B1105a
You would be required, as far as I can google, to become a commercial distillery, at which time you must apply for the $300 dollar permit and meet the ABC regs.

Doc, is right. Beer and wine, you're good to make up to a certain amount "for personal enjoyment"...pretty sure in most parts it's 100 gallons annually per adult in the household. However, spirits is a whole new ball of wax. For some reason, the ATF wants to get their hands on that.

A few laws:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5601
http://ttb.gov/spirits/regs/27cfrpart019.htm
Beer:http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/statutes/united-states

As much as I'm having a hard time drawing the line between beer/wine and spirits, it almost doesn't seem worth it to bother with the hassle...unless you're going to make it in the woods (which, for the record Big Brother, I do not encourage). Interestingly enough, some Googling unearthed that it's legal to distill in New Zealand. When the country decided to allow home stills, they expected sales of spirits to decline. It did quite the opposite, once you could make the stuff at home, the prices didn't change in stores but the volume increased.

Getting back to the OP...I would focus beer/wine, in the short term anyway. If you're single, get a roommate and brew away. 200 gallons should get you pretty far!

[JesterODX]

Thank you two for the info. I was all around it on those sites but never could get exactly what I wanted. Of course I would never do anything illegal. But I still want the know how. And with know how there is always possibilities for the future.

The micro brewery is deffinetly getting bought. Might order one of those today. $40 or less with free shipping...

[GentryMillMan]

If you are making it for fuel then it is legal. But there are still a bunch of hoops to jump through.

[cv66er]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

[JesterODX]

Icewine...

You know I am learning so much on this site. And a lot of it is stuff that just never occured to me before but makes perfectly good sense. I love it! Never thought of instead of distilling the wine for the brandy to freeze it.

[BigDaddyTX]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

You can do the same thing with hard cider too. Be warned however, it's dangerous in the best way.

[grennels]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

Which is also how Applejack is made from hard cider.

[fourway]

It is not impossible for a home or farm user to get a permit to make ETOH for vehicle fuel. It becomes more complicated if you want to use it on-road because you do need to either pay the road tax or qualify for an exemption from road tax which is as I understand it dependent on the biomatter you use to make the fuel.

There is absolutely no way currently for anyone in the USA to distill alchohol for personal consumption legally. None. No amout of jumping through hoops or getting permits can accomplish this. You can set up to be a running commercial distillery by complying with all federal and state guidelines and submitting the right forms and fees and keeping the right tax records and getting inspected... but there is no way to make this happen on a small enough scale for personal consumption.

Enforcement of illegal distilling is now done entirely by state liquor authorities and since the firearms and expolsives portion of the BATF has been rolled into homeland leaving the tobacco and alcohol portion without an enforcement arm as the TTB there has not been a federal still seizure in the better part of a decade.

However, the federal laws are still very much in place making every single aspect of illicit distilling a felony... including conspiring to, obtaining equipment with intent to, owning equipment with intent, transporting for purposes of.... and that's before you've made a drop. each one of these federal felonies carries 5 years and a steep fine.
Even expressing your intent to do it is a felony.

So all things considered unless you are planning to get a permit to make fuel or open a licensed commercial distillery, any discussion of this topic would violate this forum's rules against discussing illegal activity.
the american distilling institute at http://www.distilling.com is actively promoting those who intend to open small craft distilleries in the usa.

You might want to look at http://www.homedistiller.org/forum if you are curious about the state of possible changes to us law that might make distilling on a hobby level legal.

[fourway]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

Which is also how Applejack is made from hard cider.

And it is technically a felony.

[JesterODX]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

Which is also how Applejack is made from hard cider.

And it is technically a felony.

Hahaha! Now that is funny. Again, something I wouldnt have considered.

But discussing the legalities of brewing isnt illegal. It is good to know what is and isnt. If you dont know where the rocks are in the creek then your feet are gonna get wet. And lord knows wet socks suck big time.

[JesterODX]

Oh bought me a Mr Beer kit. Gonna be fun playing around with it.

[fourway]

Oh bought me a Mr Beer kit. Gonna be fun playing around with it.

Did you get it for 19.99 yesterday on the woot off?

[yossarian]

If you want something stronger than beer or wine, there's always icewine. Make a normal wine, then partially freeze it. The water freezes out, but the alcohol stays liquid. Poke a hole through the ice, and pour out what's basically a strong brandy.

Which is also how Applejack is made from hard cider.

And it is technically a felony.

There's actually quite a bit of dispute about that and from what I can tell its never really been decided in court. The process in question is actually freeze concentration, not distillation.

Here are some links to other people arguing about it.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/anyone-here-tried-freeze-distillation-ice-beer-161839/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/freeze-distillation-story-time-magazine-182158/

[Grey Ops]

Jester... didn't know you were on here.

Here in Canada it's technically illegal to distill (include freeze distillation), but they only go after people that actually sell the stuff from what I've been told. The beer/cider brewing culture up here is pretty big, and very legal.

[JesterODX]

Greetings my friend! Saw your artical on the Milsig Pistol conversion. Pretty cool.

As far as iceing and distilling the one thing I am sure of, I dont want to be the one to see just how illegal it is.

[fun4wheelerguy]

A little FYI...

A friend of mine had the same idea about making a still and for great reasons. He is an attorney now and has great advice for people in this thread.

In order to get the right equipment for your venture - you let the manufacturer think that you are making perfumes. You will get way better responses and easily get the equipment without triggering a bad response from the government.

Hopefully you understand what I am getting at.

[Grey Mann]

A little FYI...

A friend of mine had the same idea about making a still and for great reasons. He is an attorney now and has great advice for people in this thread.

In order to get the right equipment for your venture - you let the manufacturer think that you are making perfumes. You will get way better responses and easily get the equipment without triggering a bad response from the government.

Hopefully you understand what I am getting at.

Because trying to skirt the law is fully supported and acceptable on ZS.

[huntingohio]

I will advise you on brewing, as it is legal and fun.
Brewing wine or beer is a great way to preserve a fruit or grain harvest. I myself am a vinter [wine brewer, and amature wino when my kids arent around].
Brewing is a simple process, its really controling how yeast spoil what your brewing.
A great place to start is homebrewtalk forums reference here, I frequent the mead and cider sections myself.

However fermentation, I have the equivilent of 50 bottles of wine [13 gallons] and dont get to drink but maybes a glass with dinner twice a week and an extra on the week end.

FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY- whiskey is as simple as making beer or wine and adding a step, distilation.
wine thats distiled is called brandy
beer thats distilled [leaving out the hops] is whiskey

[Skull_Hide]

Let's not forget water distilling as well. If you wanta skirt the rules as well. Same basic setup. That's totally legal and practical to use.

[Jamie]

Pretending not to talk about illegal stuff isn't the same thing as not talking about illegal stuff...

There's been some useful input so far, but I feel as though this thread has nowhere to go, so I'm going to close it...if someone can come up with a good reason to reopen it, I'm happy to do so...

Brewing wine and beer...good...distilling alcohol to drink...illegal...we don't talk about breaking the law on ZS.

Jamie