Posted: 8/11/2004 7:11:53 PM EDT
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If you heat/distill a solution of ANY percentage of ethanol in water to 78.15 degrees Celcius, a mixture of both ethanol and water vapor comes over. The percentage composition of the mixture of the vapor coming over consists of 95% ethanol and 5% water. (This is called an azeotrope. It's explained in more detail here-->www.mines.edu/Academic/met/pe/faculty/eberhart/classes/projects/azeotropes/html/azeotropes.html). NH used to sell the 95% (190 proof) stuff but several Frat House incidents got it banned. Anyhow, it is illegal to distill beer or wine into more fortified spirits without a license. To obtain such a license you need to produce something like 500 gallons a year and have your distillery inspected by BATF. You also have to pay all the appropriate taxes. Question: Can you legally distill vodka (40% ethanol) to a 95% solution? My logic is that you have already paid all the appropriate taxes, so you can pretty well much do whatever you want with it. One analogy is a $200 tax stamp for a SBR. Once you pay the tax, you can configure the rifle with whatever barrel length you want. I did try searching this on google and on BATF's website. The latter has to be about the most user unfriendly .gov website out there.  |
i think that you are wrong. i know of a lot of people that home brew their own. You can buy the equipment at cabelas. |
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It is illegal to distill alcohol. Keep digging on the BATFE site and you will find it....ah hell....here... www.atf.gov/alcohol/info/faq/genalcohol.htm#g1 You cannot produce spirits for beverage purposes without paying taxes and without prior approval of paperwork to operate a distilled spirits plant. [See 26 U.S.C. 5601 & 5602 for some of the criminal penalties.] There are numerous requirements that must be met that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal or beverage use. Some of these requirements are paying special tax, filing an extensive application, filing a bond, providing adequate equipment to measure spirits, providing suitable tanks and pipelines, providing a separate building (other than a dwelling) and maintaining detailed records, and filing reports. All of these requirements are listed in 27 CFR Part 19. www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/5602.html Sec. 5602. - Penalty for tax fraud by distiller Whenever any person engaged in or carrying on the business of a distiller defrauds, attempts to defraud, or engages in such business with intent to defraud the United States of the tax on the spirits distilled by him, or of any part thereof, he shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both. No discontinuance or nolle prosequi of any prosecution under this section shall be allowed without the permission in writing of the Attorney General Also look here... www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/5601.html This page spells out ALL the possible charges they can lay on you: Unregistered still Failure to file application Failure or refusal of distiller, warehouseman, or processor to give bond Distilling on prohibited premises Unlawful production, removal, or use of material fit for production of distilled spirits |
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100 Gallons per year = .274 Gallons per day = approx 35oz /Day = approx 3 12oz beers/day with a household of two adults (or with two thirsty football buddies) that is not at all the level of an alcoholic per se. granted, it would be a stretch to drink that much for me and my g/f, but I could easily see myself consuming that much if I either lived in a wet county or if I made my own. having a beer with dinner every evening does not make one an alcoholic or a "drunk" as for the answer to the question, I honestly have no idea... |
I ment for distilling even though it is illegal period. I couldn't imagine anyone drinking 100 gallons of that much hard stuff by themselves. |
You dont travel to texas much do ya???<---DRUNK AK KID |
so how do you guys explain this? I think that you can't make hard liquor |
I wouldn't be producing it as it has already been 'made'. It also isn't defrauding because the tax has already been paid. But I guess that reading between the lines, any kind of manipulation of alcohol using a distilling apparatus would make it illegal, even if it is already a hard spirit. They almost make it sound like owning a distilling apparatus in and of itself is illegal.  |
| You can't distill one drop without a liscense. You can however make wine or beer. these are not spirits. An experimental liscense cost about $50 and you can distill up to 200 gallons per year but you cannot sell any of it. This liscense covers you for the purpose of perfecting your process and formula. |
Don't know about the legality of it, but what happens is you make the stuff undrinkable. We tried it in high school and the result is pretty horrible.  .
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They certainly do enforce these laws. That is the major purpose of BATF. The firearms division is small potatos compared to the alcohol division. Alcohol is where the tax money is. |
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Well the alcohol thing is something I know a little about.. You cannot distill any amount of alcohol without going throught the whole dog and pony sjhow with BATFE and the local state laws that may also apply. Doesn't matter what your intent is.. I know a labratory director at a local hospital. They use ethanol to do something with the samples and they need lots of it. The paperwork on purchasing it is about an inch thick. Bottom line? They regulate it so strictly because it is a cash cow... Alcohol is depression and recession proof income nothing more to it than that... As for Everclear being illegal, PA did the same thing here a few years ago, you have to out of state to by ethanol for consumption. Something about some college girl drinking it and dying. Her parents sued the shit out of the college she wen to and it hapened to be a state funded school of some type and guess what? No more Everclear in PA. Not that it matters to me anyway. I'm partial to good scotch or a few stiff slugs of Rumplmintz... |
It's not just the illegal manufacture. They regulate the legal industry and collect the taxes. When I worked the Roseville, CA accident where several traincar loads of bombs detonated, the BATF was there. They weren't worried about the explosives, they were most concerned with the carloads of booze that were traveling in bond (for tax free export). |
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www.homedistiller.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?Cat=&PHPSESSID= Give the above web site a try, lots of good info. there. 
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I don't think that taxes are paid on the alcohol for laboratory/pharmaceutical use, even though it is perfectly safe to drink as long as it is diluted. I remember those bottles back in college and they are 100% ethanol. Probably why BATF keeps tabs on it like you point out. |
Non-denatured industrial/lab/pharmaceutical ethanol is tax free (and can be consumed safely). BATF requires you to account for all of it, and get quite annoyed if you dont. We used it in a hospital, and kept purchase and disposition records as we used it. You account for it in proof gallons, which is a real PIA if the concentration you are using is different. A funny corollary happened a few years ago at the pharmacy school I attended. The school used tax free ethanol in the compounding labs, and noticed it was slowly disappearing. They suspected someone was stealing it, so it was spiked with phenolphalein (active ingredient in Ex-Lax a few years ago). Sure enough, a week of two later most of the housekeeping staff developed a sudden severe case of diarrhea. They (and the students) were told what happened, and that the alcohol would be randomly spiked to prevent theft. Problem solved. |