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.
Hmm.
Methanol poisoning rates are probably gonna go up. As are house explosions.
Should be fun!
Just keep some store bought vodka on hand to ease the methanol woes
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, but those other countries don’t have the same density of stupid Americans.
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.
Safety third doesn’t mean don’t think of safety. As much as I loathe Mike Rowe, it’s a valuable philosophy regarding safety. The idea is that “safety first” is so cliche as to be borderline useless, and at worst leads people to think that so long as they follow procedures and wear PPE, that they can’t be hurt, like some warding spell. Safety third puts personal responsibility and awareness of ones surroundings before safety
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.
Sure.
Source: I made it the fuck up
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.