The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider whether Congress had the constitutional authority to impose a ban on distilling spirits in private homes more than 150 years ago.
Plaintiffs challenging the prohibition on home distilling claim the 1868 law is an antiquated relic of Reconstruction-era politics. They argue that Congress overstepped its taxation powers when it enacted the home distilling ban as part of a tax reform measure designed to curb fraud by commercial distillers.
Government attorneys counter that Congress properly restricted where spirits can be distilled to prevent producers from evading federal excise taxes. They warn that lifting the ban would violate Supreme Court precedent and erode congressional powers.
Well fuck. We’ve gone so far around we’ve come back to the point I agree with the government.
The libertarian in me says fuck yes, if you wanna make booze, go make booze, fuck the monopolized spirits industry. The 2026 realist in me is trying to figure out how this turns into a big juicy bone for the existing entrenched industry players.
I also think about all the folks I know and who would try to distil liquor vs who is smart enough to do it right. Honestly this feels like thing that should be local laws. I feel its a bit like guns. The higher the density the more likely you want to restrict it or at least permit it.
Are any of the people you know who aren’t smart enough to do it safely not doing it because of the law?
I don’t think they don’t do it because its illegal as much as because its not convenient enough. If there was something like head shops for brewing and distillation I could see them giving it a try.
They’re probably against it. Diageo wants you buying from them.
Hmm.
Methanol poisoning rates are probably gonna go up. As are house explosions.
Should be fun!
There’s several other countries with a thriving legal home distillation scene, New Zealand being one of the more commonly referenced ones, that disprove the danger.
Ethanol is actually a treatment option for methanol poisoning, plus the amount of methanol is quite low in fermented grain and fruit alcohols to begin with and, despite what people believe, is not concentrated in the heads so even forgetting to remove the heads doesn’t increase the risk of methanol poisoning.
The amount of ethanol vapor in air is also quite low. Many hobby distillation sets also use immersed electric heating elements as they’re way more efficient so igniting ethanol vapor is less risk than you might think.
Yeah, you can also distill using pressure swings entirely to be completely safe.
My neighbor is a licensed gunsmith and gun dealer. He still gets drunk, forgets which guns are loaded, and puts new holes in his walls every few months.
Something tells me that the people most excited about the prospect might have a “safety third” mindset.
Overall, I’m not against getting rid of the ban, even a fairly large still explosion probably won’t take out more than the distiller/their family, and I’m smart enough to not buy sketchy Bob’s moonshine. It does mean I get to play a bit more without breaking any laws.
How embarrassing, that guy forgot his shirt!
Was just gonna say, those stories you read every few years about 50+ people dying from improperly distilled alcohol in Kenya are coming to a town near you.
This sounds like a racist Republican trope. Can you link to a credible instance? I’ve literally never heard any stories about this.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/nigeria-deaths-suspected-methanol-alcohol-brew-drink
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112310405/south-africa-teens-methanol-bar-deaths
And a bunch of countries in Southeast Asia https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/methanol-poisoning-symptoms-laos-bali-b3019296.html
Yeah, those weren’t from distillation. From the first link
“Locals told the AP they suspected a popular herbal drink with high alcohol content, known as “Monkey Tail,” was mixed with methanol, causing the deaths.” Notice the methanol added part.
From the second one "Methanol is a toxic form of alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide or an alternative source of fuel. It is not used in the production of alcohol sold for human consumption.
It is yet not known how the youngsters ingested the methanol." Again, sounds like cheap industrial methanol was mixed in. Also not home distillation.
And again, the third one isn’t home distillation causing issues, it’s cheap places trying to make a buck by cutting their product with cheap additives.
You’re saying the raw milk ivermectin people are not going to be spiking their alcohol with who knows what?
I’m saying the raw milk ivermectin people are likely to do that already and the current data doesn’t show home distillation to be a problem.
The kind of people who are gonna add methanol to what they make are the kind of people to ignore the legality of home distillation and do it anyways.
“Our country’s founders would be rolling over in their graves to learn that a pastime in which even George Washington partook, which is as American as apple pie and certainly a lot older, has quite absurdly been turned into a federal crime,” Alt said in a statement.
Yeah, Washington never partook whatsoever in any pastimes which have been rightfully turned into federal crimes. No siree. Not one single thing.
What was the whiskey rebellion about? Oh well guess it doesn’t matter
Probably those whiny, Federalist liberals crying in the town square over George Washington’s love for untaxed, homebrewed whiskey.
I don’t know how popular this is but I would love them to relax the rules on home distillation. There are public safety issues with home distillation but there are lots of things you can do at home that are dangerous and there’s way more safety info and better tools available these days. I just wanna make my own booze!
For all ya’ll disliking this, I can buy chemicals off ebay where a whiff can give you super cancer, i can own large construction equipment without permits and use it as long as its on my own property. I think distilling alcohol is fine
And most of the safety concerns of home distillation are way overblown to boot. The person likely to actually cause a fire distilling at home I guarantee is the kind of person splashing large jugs of white spirits from the hardware store everywhere near open flames or dropping icy turkey in a vat of oil and is already gonna start a fire somehow.
Yet another conservative attempt at government deregulation.
BOOM.
