Home brewing and distillery

ampleforth

I learnt that home brewing in Ireland is legal as long as one does not sell or otherwise gain material benefits from it. Learnt that home distillery is illegal. Is that because of it's dangers?

BeerNut

I think it's more a revenue thing. Ireland has a long history of illicit distilling as a means of avoiding tax on spirits. The strict ban on home distilling comes from that.

rubadub

ampleforth wrote: »

I learnt that home brewing in Ireland is legal as long as one does not sell or otherwise gain material benefits from it. Learnt that home distillery is illegal. Is that because of it's dangers?

It is legal in quite a few countries, some might have limits, e.g. the volume of the still might only be allowed be a certain amount of litres.

There are lots of myths surrounding distillation and its dangers. It is not particularly dangerous at all. I would be more confident drinking spirits made by some randomer than say a chicken cooked by them. And also be more confident some people I know would make spirits more safely than cooking some things.

Of course the authorities would have no problem keeping up these myths. You would really have to go well out of your way to make a toxic poitin/moonshine, deliberately separating out the methanol and it would take quite a bit batch to do so.

e.g. I have searched high & low online, and consider myself pretty good at searching and have never once found an instance of somebody going blind, or damaging their eyesight due to poorly distilled alcohol made from fermented fruit, grain, sugar brews. I have found LOADS of instances of people being damaged by illicit alcohol, but if you look into it then it invariably they are actually drinking industrial alcohols sold by gangs. The gangs will steal methanol, isopropanol, denatured alcohol etc and sell it on as ethanol, then the ignorant media just call it "moonshine".

Ethanol is actually cheaper to produce than the methanol, so many denatured alcohols are mainly ethanol with a little methanol added to make it poisonous and so no be subject to excise duty. Some might have unplatable additives too, which can be filtered or distilled out. So the spirits would likely not be just methanol.

In countries with high excise it is going to be more likely to be illegal, since it is going to be more profitable and worthwhile to make it illicitly.

Some of the Irish homebrew shops openly sell distillation "turbo yeasts" and some equipment for distillation. I have never heard of a hobby distiller being caught by the law here, i.e. somebody making small amounts for themselves.

BeerNut

And that's enough about distillation.

Gatoh

If I import 200L, 500L, or 1000L of grape juice from an EU state and ferment it here, should it be legal? Since grape juice already includes VAT from the country of purchase, there shouldn't be any customs duty, and as it's not alcohol, there shouldn't be an alcohol tax. Additionally, as long as it's for personal use, I don't believe there's a limit on how many liters of homemade wine one can produce. Making your own wine from wine kits is okay, but it can't beat wine made from fresh grapes. And during the season, you can often buy grape juice quite cheaply; the most expensive part is usually the delivery

BeerNut

VAT is payable in the country of use. The sole exception is when you transport the goods yourself. So if you order the juice to have it shipped to you, you're liable for Irish VAT on it, regardless of whether VAT was paid in the country of purchase.

I don't think there's any other duty involved, and there's no limitation on quantity or what you do with it, other than a ban on selling what you make from it.