Noah was a whino! Scary yes, but if you want a good laugh, listen to the Loftus Ranch show on the Sunday Session. Toward the end they play clips of the discussion from the house floor. JP was on fire that day.
My favorite is when one rep says he has the biggest bootlegger in the county and that he would love this legislation. If you know where he is and what he’s doing, why don’t you arrest him?
Just wanted to post a quick update about the Pint of Law blog. If any of you guys have been following the blog, then you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted anything new in a few months. I’ve been getting slammed at work recently and it’s been preventing me from doing much of anything, even brewing – major bummer. I think things will ease up by late January, however, and there are plenty of things to talk about for 2012, so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Matt
Wis. Senate passes bill on homebrew guidelines:
Now it goes to assembly:
http://www.kare11.com/rss/article/962087/14/Wis-Senate-passes-bill-on-homebrew-guidelines
Awesome
Did anyone hear if the Illinois bill got anywhere? Supposedly one was introduced to mimic WI law.
Regarding the status of the Illinois bill, recently an email was passed around with a link to see the status:http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=6229&GAID=11&GA=97&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=67830&SessionID=84
In Illinois, the bill was assigned to the Rulles Committee on 11/9/12. Technically, the Rules Committee is supposed to determine where to reassign bills when it’s not obvious. Practically speaking, this is where unwanted bills go to die. Our shadow governor, Mike Madigan has full control over this process, and it’s extremely unlikely to move anywhere during the short November Veto session. While there are ways around it, only legislation vetoed by the governor are worked on during the veto session. They should be working on public pensions and the budget deficit.
So, this bill and all unpassed bills die at the end of the session. It will need to be reintroduced after the new legislature is sworn in, in January.
bummer…
Great stuff. Always up for an interesting read and a little education/history. Thanks!!
Oh well, even Denny had to try a few times before finally getting something passed out there in Orygun… Maybe it will be reintroduced in the new session and passed without much fanfare…otherwise we will need to get the letters and emails started to get some information flowing to allow the homebrews to do the same at some of the 2013 events.
Not to brag, but the law got passed the first time around without a single vote against it in any committee or legislative body.
Congrats, Denny. Rational legislatures are a thing of wonder around these parts.
Illinois can’t get anything done the first time around - it takes a few times to make sure all palms are properly greased.
Very nice post! Here in Utah, they just passed a home brew transport law that allows the transport of no more than 64oz of home brew. One growler… It would seem rather hard in my opinion to regulate this law. I can get more than one growler at the local brew pub. Just saying…
Thanks Patriot and Gary for a rather in depth explanation. 
Have you ever heard of any cases where someone was prosecuted for exceeding the limits or transporting ?
I would guess it would be hard to enforce the maximum allowable limits. If your Posting all your batches made on facebook and other places may be one way to tell if your exceeding your limits. And one may want to pay cash for kits and ingredients every now and then as to not create a paper trail.
Again, thanks for the information.
Dan
What an excellent post! Thank you, Pawtucket Patriot (Matt, is it?), for writing such an informative and comprehensive explanation of applicable law(s). This is very interesting stuff, especially for a new homebrewer such as myself.
Also, I want to give my thanks to Denny for all your efforts on getting SB444 signed in to law. As a fellow Oregonian, it is MUCH appreciated. 
Cheers!
Hey guys,
Thanks for the comments! I’m glad that people are getting something out of that post.
Stealthbrewer: to date, I have not heard of anyone being prosecuted for exceeding the limits or violating any removal/use restrictions. But I have heard of several state-level agencies enforcing state laws that are more restrictive than the federal homebrewer’s exemption.
Keep on brewing!
Matt
Thank you sir, I’ve read the code before but your expounding on all the lawful jargon was very helpful
Hello,
This is an informational notice to let all the brewers know what is going on in a related but different part of the brewing world. The home beer lovers got a huge boost when Jimmy Carter’s brother Bill got caught brewing Billy Beer. Good things happen when your brother is President of the United States.
We know it is legal to brew up to 200 gallons of beer annually (for a 2+ person household). It is illegal however, everywhere but New Zealand, to concentrate the alcohol that is already in the legally brewed beer by running it through a distillation devise. The reason for this discrimination is simple: revenue. The Dukes and Kings of old needed money to finance their wars so they taxed home made booze. Distilling alcohol without a permit is a federal crime under code 26 USC. It is a state crime without a permit in every state but Missouri, Arizona and we aren’t so sure about Alaska.
Mine is a story, not about mountain moonshiners selling untaxed liquor by the gallon, these guys are criminals and should be treated as such; but about the home or hobby distiller. The average hobby distiller probably makes less than 10 gallons of spirits a year. It is consumed personally and with friends/ family and neighbors and is NEVER sold to anyone. We don’t know how many hobbyists there are in the US, but the numbers are certainly in the hundreds of thousands. With the advent of online sales, still purchases have skyrocketed and are still climbing. Many stills are made at home by following the directions available online and in the many books published on the subject.
There have been write-in campaigns, petitions and lots of ideas about how to legalize Hobby distilling and none have gotten the attention of the lawmakers in Washington DC. We wrote a very sensible and simple proposal last summer that puts the bobby distillers on an even par with the beer brewers and wine makers. I’d love to post it but can’t figure out how.
With the help of Rick Morris, owner of Brewhaus Inc. USA, we have started the Hobby Distiller’s Association, or HDA. www.hobbydistillersassociation.org. HDA is being run as a nonprofit, with all of the funds going toward our legislative efforts. We have hired Lobbyit.com to represent us in Congress at a cost of approximately $40,000/year. We hope the bill passage does not take any longer than that but there are no guarantees. I would like to invite anyone who has an interest in distilling, or knows someone who does to join our association. There are several ways to join so check us out. The fee is only $30.00us and goes to help offset the lobbying costs. The site is brand new and only a few weeks old so we still have work to do. Everyone working on the project is a volunteer.
Lastly, comments and ideas are welcome. Volunteers are needed. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for the info, Tom. AFAIK, the AHA has decided that distilling is out of their purview, at least for the time being. It’s good to hear that there’s an organization for people interested in home distilling.
Heat distilling, right? Cuz they do award eisbock
that’s freeze concentration. you remove the water instead of the ethanol