home brewers anyone?

[michaelsbagley]

Yep - it was an oversight from the end of the Prohibition era. Jimmy Carter signed a bill that allowed a certain amount of home brewing to be done without taxation (can't remember the amount, though...)

I have read in one of the many home brewing books that I have that the legal limit to how much home brew one can make in the course of a year before taxation is... And it is more than any sane home brewer could theoretically make and drink. I think the number of gallons it takes to break that mark pretty much puts you in the category of commercial brewer. If I recall correctly the number is listed in the Charlie Papazian book "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing", if I can remember through my NyQuil induced haze, I will try and look it up and post the number tonight... Actually scratch that, we'll take the Wikipedia article's word on it this time (although I tend to treat Wikipedia info with some suspicion in many cases)... According to Wikipedia, a household can brew up to 100 gallons per year per adult over the age of 21 living there. So an average household with a married couple could brew up to 200 gallons per year without breaking the law. It could be even more if you have that adult child living with you that just won't get their own darn place to live already and stop free-loading...

Despite the fact that the Papazian books lists how much you can legally brew, it doesn't go into the span where it was illegal and why. So that was a really cool tidbit you added there Jill!

I also think it would be a difficult law to enforce, are they going to track the amount of alcohol in your urine content in the septic systems leaving every house in the country? Although if you started selling it or buying the ingredients in huge quantities, it might raise some red flags somewhere....

[lady constance]

yah--- with the freeloaders here, we could brew 400 gallons a year tax free!

i STILL have one 2 liter bottle of plum wine i made last year down in my extra fridge......

maybe i ought to bring it to paynetown......

and put it in bread.........{ i aint drinking it!!}

and bad lady that i am, i let my plums ROT on the trees this year.........umm i mean i let the bugs and birds eat them........darn japanese beetles!! oh ow i love hitting them with the propane torch!! POOF! they 'splode!

but i do have truck load of pears growing.. i dont know a single bug that can even get thru pear skin to taste it!

[michaelsbagley]

yah--- with the freeloaders here, we could brew 400 gallons a year tax free!

i STILL have one 2 liter bottle of plum wine i made last year down in my extra fridge......

maybe i ought to bring it to paynetown......

and put it in bread.........{ i aint drinking it!!}

and bad lady that i am, i let my plums ROT on the trees this year.........umm i mean i let the bugs and birds eat them........darn japanese beetles!! oh ow i love hitting them with the propane torch!! POOF! they 'splode!

but i do have truck load of pears growing.. i dont know a single bug that can even get thru pear skin to taste it!

Hey are you calling Silas a freeloader?

Plum wine! I'll drink what you don't bake with! I'll try and remember to bring you some of my cherry wine to sample (drink or cook with at your leisure), but my memory I have learned is terribly bad during packing as I have learned this summer, and every time I have told someone I would bring something to an event, that seems to be the one or two things I forget...

Speaking of plums, Nick sent me an email last night saying that his plum tree is just about ready to harvest... I think he is looking for some help with making a batch of plum wine. Maybe there might be enough that I can get a small batch out of it too for next year?

[ns_477]

ok dokey...first things first...as i recall from papazians book he says that the legal limit of home brewing was 120 gallons per legaly aged person liveing in a residence....secondly after prohobition wine and meade were immediatly legal to brew, beer however was not... and it was only as a result of poorly worded laws nothing more or less heinious than that, but mr carter fixed it, and now we in america are begining again to discover that beer is potentially more than just a tasteless pilsner made with to-dang-much cornsyrup

(steps off saop box...trips over ego)

yes the rumors are true this weekend if all goes to plan ( which it never does) i am planning on starting a batch of sweet, semi dry, dessert wine, of the plum variety.

also inspite of the fact or despite (veiw depending) that i have no gooseberries this year has anyone out there made any wine with gooseberries in the past?

also was hopeing that some one could explain the use of oak chips and oak essence...as a country child, and with most of my wine likeing and drinking being wines either not made with grapes or not made to the specifacations of anything like merlot, chablis, ect i ve never heard of or tasted this

unless its used to impart the flaver of a scortched barrel while being brewed with glass...if some could help with that id be really interested to learn about that as it sounds very interesting and may be something i add to later brews and potentially to beer brews as well espesially since the cost of real cask to brew a cask ale is allegedly prohibitivly expensive and cask brewsa re so very much a delicious treat that is quite rare im finding

but there is a place in columbus that does regularly serve cask ales but im of the understanding that you almost have to be on an inside track to get there in time before their gone....

also going to be haveing another batch of deckhand honey ale on brew as well real soon everything except the time to do it is in order!

so lots do lots to brew

and lots of cheers from me to you!

[CaptainSatan]

Luckily our government does not require home brewers to keep any records.

So in theory you could brew as much as you like

[Ricblackthorne]

If any here need mead recipes, I have a huge archive of them, every variation I could think of. Have even made most of them over the years.

Ric