Homebrewing beer and wine was forbidden in the US not until 1978 when a law repealled the Federal restrictions on this practice. An adult, in this case 21 years old or older, is now allowed to produce up to 100 gallons of beer or wine each year for personal consumption (selling the alcohol is a different story and requires a permit). On this liberal acceptance, America still kept a blind eye to decriminalize moonshining. Possessing a still and extracting alcohol as fuel is decent if you have a BATF permit however distilling spirits for private use is still illicit.

So what holds back Uncle Sam from embracing this rather similar practice?

Health risks are the primary alibis that the government posed to bow out from this argument, to mention lead poisoning and blindness caused by methanol ingestion from drinking 'shine. These notions were remnants of US prohibition period when some bootleggers used methanol to cut moonshine and increase profit, and used car radiators which are lead contaminated as condensers to distill alcohol. Obviously these things apply in a commercial set up, one who's after personal drinking wouldn't intentionally add wood alcohol to his liquor or use his automobile radiator which he knows is not safe to extract the spirit. Homemade spirits are really safe if properly and carefully prepared.

On a second opinion, the government of course will not simply withdraw the excise tax it imposed on distilled spirits. Per gallon of beer is taxed at 60c and at most $3.30 for wine, which are significantly smaller than $13.50 share for a gallon of spirit - that's enough loss in government revenue if moonshining is legalized don't you think? So perhaps the feds are just really concerned when they claim safety, or maybe not.

This video tells it all, great stuffs you ought to know!

 

" Why when you enjoy something would you wanna talk about it openly when you know that you could possibly be arrested for it! There's no harm, there's no foul...screw the law. " -reason.tv