Posted on 04/10/2026 4:29:13 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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.
Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones said the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing distilling in the first place, unlike laws that regulated the manufacture and labeling of distilled spirits on which the government could collect taxes.
She also said that under the government's logic, Congress could criminalize virtually any in-home activity that might escape notice from tax collectors, including remote work and home-based businesses.
"Without any limiting principle, the government’s theory would violate this court’s obligation to read the Constitution carefully to avoid creating a general federal authority akin to the police power," Jones wrote.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
One of my uncles and my mother’s father made raki annually using raisins.
“Suma rakı, i.e. distilled rakı prior to the addition of aniseed, is generally produced from raisins”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rak%C4%B1
My sister and her husband Gary made wine annually.
Apple Pie moonshine is very popular. My son’s friend makes it and it’s good but very powerful.
“She also said that under the government’s logic, Congress could criminalize virtually any in-home activity that might escape notice from tax collectors, including remote work and home-based businesses.”
I maintain my cars at home, by the logic of the distilling law, I’d have to pay sales tax (and whatever other taxes) on the work that I do on the cars. Glad I’m not an outlaw anymore...and now I can cut my grass without fear, too.
LMAO
However, I can see it becoming poopular if some top decorators figured out a way to make it a great design area.Sofa-shaped barrels? Seasonal slipcovers? Big contests housewives would try to win ((if they could still stand up).
Can you get the recipe? Apple Pie Vodka sounds good.
I used to collect not so good home fermented wine and distilled it to make pretty good brandy. 150+ proof.
Moonshine can now be Sunshine !!!!!!!!!!
buy your copper still now before the prices spike
Let the good times roll!
I seem to remember Mammy Yokum brewed as well.
“Kickapoo Joy Juice” didn’t bring any results, either.
And failure to discard the first and last 10% for safety reasons.
Copper Kettle
By Frank Beddoe (Bob Dylan and Joan Baez versions on records)
Build you a fire with hickory
Hickory, ash and oak
Don’t use no green or rotten wood
They’ll get you by the smoke
We’ll just lay there by the juniper
While the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling
In the pale moonlight
My daddy he made whiskey
My granddaddy he did too
We ain’t paid no whiskey tax
Since 1792.
Version on Self Portrait.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhavzsdylbM
I would love to know what was the basis for Congress’s power to enact such a law in the first place? After all, there’s no interstate commerce involved here. If they had levied attacks on alcohol production, that would’ve been one thing, because Congress has the power to tax things. But this is an outright ban. This should’ve been overturned as unconstitutional long ago.
This reminds me of something I first heard about 50 years ago, which is that my grandfather, who was a doctor and had a good understanding of chemistry, made some “bathtub booze“ during Prohibition in a still that he put together. Before I learned that, as a young teen, I had this illusion of my grandfather (a kindly older gentleman with a proper pot belly) being a completely upright and law-abiding citizen. He explained to me that nobody was going to tell him that he couldn’t do what his parents and grandparents or older ancestors going back thousands of years could and did do. He said he was far from alone, that literally millions of Americans were doing the same thing.
one had ax holes in the remaining metal.
= = =
Those were from the feds.
You might be surprised. Get a little way out of town and you could find it. I mean, at least you could here, people living in a fundamentalist area might have it harder.
I am very happy that this ban has come to light.
Now, I can test and put into action my grand father’s still.
He died in 1938 but left all of the apparatus to my father who
gave all parts to me.
It is this, to take place or my selling the copper implements.
I love ouzo. Is Raki similar?
CC
FWLIW we were at dinner at the clubhouse tonight because they had live music. We’d finished, wife was talking to someone in the adjacent room, I was hanging out at our table, and the artist started Tennessee Whisky right as I saw this post.
Chris Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey (Lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WpF4GJYIwY
Obviously tons of people have covered this, David Allen Coe was the first to record it.
I always wanted to meet David Allen Coe and ask him, "who does your hair?" 🙂😊😁😀😃😆😅😂🤣
I always thought it was BS too.
We have some good friends who a dozen or so years ago who had a 2nd house in the N. GA mountains on Blue Ridge Lake. They had some friends who had an older uncle who would make a batch of the good stuff for the holidays. Their friends would get a case of quart jars, and they’d get one of them. No money changed hands, just something their friends’ uncle would do for his friends and family every year.
It was a nice medium brown, peach infused, and drank really, really nicely with an ice cube or two.
They have since sold that house and fell out of touch with those folks, but I will always remember that nice peach infused N GA ‘shine.
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