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The 6th Circuit upheld that 158-year-old law, while the 5th Circuit concluded it could not be justified as a revenue measure. If you search for "home still" on Amazon, you will see a wide variety of contraptions designed to separate and concentrate a liquid mixture's most volatile components. Many of them are explicitly advertised as appliances designed to produce alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, brandy, gin, and vodka. But if you bought one of those products with the intent to use it for that purpose, you would be committing a federal felony. The federal ban on home production of distilled...

The decision challenges a Reconstruction-era law originally intended to prevent Americans from evading federal liquor taxes.A federal appeals court struck down a longstanding ban on home distilling, ruling that it does not effectively support tax collection and is therefore unconstitutional. While home production of beer and wine has long been legal, distilling spirits at home has been prohibited since 1868, with penalties including prison time and fines. The ruling does not immediately legalize home distilling nationwide, as state laws still apply and the federal government may appeal to the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court just handed a major win...

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...

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a 156-year-old ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional, siding with a group that advocates for legalizing the ability of people to produce spirits like whiskey and bourbon for their personal consumption. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump in Fort Worth, on Wednesday agreed with, opens new tab the Hobby Distillers Association's lawyers that the longstanding ban exceeded Congress's taxing power and ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that an 1868 ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, in his ruling on Wednesday, sided with the Hobby Distillers Association’s lawyers that the 156-year-old ban exceeded Congress’s taxing power and violated the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The Hobby Distillers Association is a group that advocates legalizing a person’s production of spirits such as whiskey and bourbon for their personal consumption. “Indeed, the Constitution is written to prevent societal amnesia of the defined limits it places on this government of and by the people,” Pittman wrote. “That is where...

Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978. In the aftermath of its failure to pass a health-care overhaul, Congress appears poised to turn to tax reform. While income and corporate tax rates will likely garner most of the attention, alcohol producers are also hoping for changes to booze taxes. Specifically, brewer, vintners, and distillers have been pushing on Capitol Hill for the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which would lower federal excise taxes on alcohol. Despite attracting nearly 300 co-sponsors in the...

The court found that regulating home alcohol stills is not one of the enumerated powers given to the government. At https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014.49.0.pdf UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION

If the nation’s liquor stores bolt their doors, can bootleg liquor be far behind? My favorite time of day is cocktail hour. While I love any number of bars and restaurants, my favorite place to enjoy a cocktail is my home. Thanks to my professional requirements, I have an abundant supply of some of the best whiskies and wines in the world. In addition, the service is impeccable (there’s no trying to get the bartender’s attention—I am the bartender), the pours are always perfect, there’s no last call and I don’t have to worry about driving home. And now, like...

MILLERSBURG, Ohio (AP) - Authorities in the heart of Ohio's Amish country say they arrested more than 70 people in a raid at a weekend party in a field that was expected to attract hundreds of Amish youth. More than 40 officers converged Saturday on the Hardy Township field after concerned parents notified the Holmes County sheriff's office of a large party expected to attract over 1,000 Amish from Ohio and neighboring states. Investigators say 73 people, including 35 juveniles, were taken into custody and charged with underage consumption of alcohol.

Each held Saturday on $1.5 million bondTwo Broward County men were among three arrested this week in a nighttime police raid after they planned to attack four police stations, President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house, according to court documents. The men arrested Wednesday in an apartment building in the Bridgeport neighborhood. They're accused of trying to make Molotov cocktails ahead of the two-day summit that starts Sunday. They were each held Saturday on $1.5 million bond. Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla. and Jared Chase, 24, of...

20 years ago, my wife gave away my carboy and put dog food in my ABS plastic bucket that I did my first ferments in. I have constantly reminded her of that violation. This Christmas, she bought two brew kits for me. So of course, I had to try it out right away. I did a kit for a Honey Brown Ale - Similar to Newcastle. Yesterday, I cracked open a bottle with friends.

An Inspector General review of emails in Hillary Clinton’s inbox found at least four instances where information she received should have been considered secret at the time she received it. The matter has now been referred to the FBI. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Inspector General only looked at a small sample of Hillary’s inbox, just 40 emails. Of those 40, four were found to have information classified “secret.” A spokesperson for the IG told the WSJ the emails “were classified when they were sent and are classified now.” Though the remainder of Hillary’s email has not been...

A recycling facility in Silicon Valley is trying to trace a woman who dumped a rare Apple 1 computer, which just sold to a private collector for $200,000. The company wants to give her a cut of the proceeds: $100,000. The firm — CleanBayArea — said the woman dropped off boxes of old gadgets and “e-waste” one month ago, but didn’t leave any contact information. “She said that her husband had passed away and that she had decided to clean up their garage,” the company said in a statement. After searching through the boxes a few weeks later, a recycling...

MILPITAS (CBS/AP) — A recycling center in the Silicon Valley is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be a collectible item worth $200,000. Victor Gichun of Clean Bay Area says the woman dropped off boxes of electronics that she had cleaned out from her garage after her husband died. She didn’t want a tax receipt or leave her contact information, and it wasn’t until a few weeks later that workers at the recycling center opened the boxes to discover an Apple I (one) computer inside. It was one of only about...

WASHINGTON (AP) — No, it's not always a room filled with wires and glowing blue lights. It's probably not even the size of your furnace. The personal email server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton during her time as secretary of state was probably about the size of your office desktop computer and could have been tucked quietly in a corner somewhere. She's come a long way since 1997, when Clinton's staff bought the then-first lady a copy of the book "E-Mail for Dummies." Setting up your own email server is something only the geekiest of tech geeks do because of...

I'm not sure if you guys have heard, but Pakistan is great this time of year. Most of what I know about Pakistan comes from watching Homeland which is probably based on a true story or something. Anyway, second and third world countries have really stepped up their game in the firearms production.

Obama's & His Dark Sayings; The Wrath of God On America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrp6wUkTGjY

I have been experimenting with making my own apple pie "moonshine". I am using 190 proof Everclear..looking for advise or maybe a recipe.

Beer aficionados are pouncing at the rare opportunity to buy one of the world's most elusive and revered beers for the first - and perhaps only - time in the United States. It is called Westvleteren XII, and it is often hailed as the "world's best beer" by reviewers and fans. Westvleteren XII is produced by Trappist monks in Belgium and sold at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian countryside. The beer can usually only be purchased by reservation at the abbey - and reservations are extremely hard to come by. But when the abbey found itself hurting...

A surprising anecdote from a White House pool report this morning: Campaign official also offers up that potus was talking about white house beer, which apparently the white house brews, she said, and one cafe patron requested a bottle, so potus sent out to Ground Force One and gave him one.