StillSmart

Hi all im new to the forums but have been distilling at home for quite a while now with great results.

I use thee still spirits air still at the moment but will probably upgrade to the T500 when im ready.

My question is about legalility of this hobby. It's obvious that there are hundreds if not thousands doing this in the uk and the market is quite large.

I wondered if anyone thinks that it will ever become legal in the uk. I read that at one time it was illegal in NZ and in the end so many people were doing it that they ruled that it would become legal to brew in your home for personal use.

Do you think that will happen here? I really hope so.

I think it is highly unlikely to be legal in the UK - the government makes far too much money from duty and they don't really care about how many people are doing it.

There would have to be millions of people doing it before the 'balance of power' would swing far enough to allow people power to get it legal. Given the amount of people that smoke illegal 'grown' substances and that hasn't been made legal...

You and I know it's only home brew beer with a few extra tweaks but HMRC is unlikely to see it that way.

The only glimmer of hope I can see is that you can produce 1600 litres of bio ethanol a year for fuel use which means they have to agree that distillation at home is safe from a fire/storage etc perspective.

MrCat wrote:I think it is highly unlikely to be legal in the UK - the government makes far too much money from duty and they don't really care about how many people are doing it.

There would have to be millions of people doing it before the 'balance of power' would swing far enough to allow people power to get it legal. Given the amount of people that smoke illegal 'grown' substances and that hasn't been made legal...

You and I know it's only home brew beer with a few extra tweaks but HMRC is unlikely to see it that way.

The only glimmer of hope I can see is that you can produce 1600 litres of bio ethanol a year for fuel use which means they have to agree that distillation at home is safe from a fire/storage etc perspective.

Ive just been out and bought an ez filter today got a great deal from my lhbs. And on the manual that comes with it it says on the back....

As of the 30th of june 2007 it is legal to produce 2500 litres of bio fuel per year in the uk without a permit. Sounds like a good get out clause to me

I suspect that keeping your fuel in mason jars and old liquor bottle might make that get out clause a tad harder to sell.

I can't see it being made legal in Canada either. I just can't see any politicians seeing enough value in getting behind that change. It would be interesting to know how the change happened in NZ. It used to be illegal to make beer and wine here, it would be worth looking into how that was changed.

Chuck

Thing is we dont want it to be legal on a commercial scale or for distribution from home.

It would be nice if they would just make it legal to produce it at home for personal use. Even if they did that it doesn't mean everyone is suddenly going to go out and start distilling their own spirits so i doubt they would loose much tax revenue at all.

I completely agree. I have no desire to sell or barter what I produce. I garden, cook, can, make lactic ferment pickles, sauerkraut, beer, and wine. I brine my own meat and have started to consider cheese making. Why does the state have a right to say that I may not distill for my own use? It seems an unacceptable intrusion on my privacy. Is a man's home not his castle? All I want is to pursue a better quality of things to eat and drink.


Chuck

sweet mother of god , Chuck

if YHB's brilliant boiler wasn't bad enough - now you show me up by your equally brilliant self sufficiency

oy vey


*slopes off to wallow in my own lazy ineptitude*

Chill'

Have you tried making sausages?

We make our own sausages as well, taste much better than bought ones and we know what meat goes into them.

Stout: Well I live in a big city so I am not exactly living off the grid. I just like to cook and experiment and I am willing to put in some effort to eat/drink the best that I can. We have no children so I have to do somethign with my time besides work.

YHB: Yes, I do make sausages. Luckily I have found some real butchers locally who still make all their sausages in house (and an Italian place that makes incredible salami) so I can have some confidence in what I am eating. We don't buy supermarket meat of any kind any more. My wife is Thai and I spent a long time in Thailand, so mostly I try to recreate sausages that I remember from there and other places in my travels. Oh, and my Pakoras are pretty famous too!

I love that there is so much to learn and experiment with this hobby. AND I get to drink the successful results!

Chuck