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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   4774 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 7, 2024

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Federal District Court in Texas says the federal ban on home distilling is not a Constitutionally-permissible power of Congress.

This seems extremely plausible to me as a matter of Constitutional law. Assuming it survives appeals, is there any form of home distilling that is "worth it"?

If we see Gonzalez v. Raich or Wickard v. Filburn overturned, that would be cool. I don't especially expect it, because it would be far-reaching, but who knows. They made several important anti-agency decisions this term, so it might be possible.

I'm not a hard liquor guy, so I cannot tell you, but I dabble in homebrewing, and as far as I understand all you need for alcohol is water, sugar, and yeast. I don't know how things work in Americaland, but in Europe there's no way to make either of these components add up to what you have to pay, after excise taxes are applied. Governments trying to ban home distilling is a pretty good indication of it being cost-efficient enough to be competitive with the store bought stuff.

Distilling requires a still, of course, which is considerably more capital and energy than simply brewing, which can be done in a jug.

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