Alabama Homebrewer Arrested

maxamuus said:

Here is the Sheriff with the contraband.

The stuff in the bottle is supposed to be the 'shine. My starsan bottle looks a lot like that.

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Looking at this photo to find evidence of distilling is like looking at a where's waldo picture without waldo. Everything in there looks like legit homebrewing equipment to me. Unfortunately, homebrewing is illegal in Alabama and as we all know states have the option of adopting federals laws as their own. Since the subject is so taboo in that area perhaps he shouldn't have posted on the internet a **** ton of photos with his face in it. Sadest part is that the cops say they went there looking for a meth lab and found brewing equpiment. Like others have said, I'm willing to bet that their "evidence" of home distilling is nothing more than a copper chiller.

Brewing laws are archaic almost everywhere. I'm surprised we're only allowed 100 gallons per household.

Also it's a widely known scientific fact that Alabama sucks.

At least he bought A-1 Equipment!! I'd like to pick up that fermenter at auction!!


This looks from the pic to be a BS arrest, nothing there to indicate there was distilling going on!!

Dunerunner said:

This looks from the pic to be a BS arrest, nothing there to indicate there was distilling going on!!

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I will reserve my opinion on this until it has been deemed yes or no officially, for the distilling. Some stills are VERY basic and very easy to set up and break down. This info is widely available all over the internet.

If he was distilling, then he deserves the "book thrown at him". On the other hand if this is just a "home brewer" I truly feel sorry for this persons situation.


time will tell....

I'm holding out little hope that this thread will remain open.
Please stick to the topic at hand.

Keep your political and religious screeds out of it.

If you want to talk about those things, go tot the debate forum.

Olllllllllllllllo, please delete the OT crap and impose any participant-specific consequences before closing this thread. I'd like to be able to keep track of what happens to this poor guy.

I read most of this thread the other day. I might be the first person to say the following.

Even if he was distilling who cares! Homebrewing is illegal in AL and distilling is illegal nationally. I personally think that neither should be illegal and if I want to make homemade rum/whiskey or whatever then that's my business. This country is ridiculous with laws just to keep the govt coffers full. I hope he gets off free and clear even if he was distilling.

If they also seized guns, that's a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison. Even if he had a license, possessing a firearm when committing a felony (manufacturing distilled alcohol) is a very serious crime. Hopefully the prosecutor will be lenient since he is a veteran, but he might also want to make an example out of him. Federal lawyers usually cost about $40,000+. The laws are very unjust for the crime that was committed.

Without getting into other lawful matters/debates, there has been attempts by politicians to legalize home distilling. Every year though it seems like a bill is brought up and Washington never votes on due to other more pressing matters.

I for one don't see anything wrong with home distilling, I don't do it myself because I don't feel like going to jail. Which is were the whole thing comes down to, politics and the legal system. If it was made legal, I still doubt I'd do it since I don't care for liquor. I do like a sip of rum every now and then but that usually involve a pint lasting 2 years.

As for Alabama, its there issue not ours which makes our opinions moot. Its the fight for the people who live there and if they ask for help, give it them without impeding the opinions of other residents of Alabama.

I temporarily moved a bunch of posts to a hidden thread until I could go through them all. Some of them were well written and persuasive, unfortuately this isn't the forum for them. Others were needlessly OT, attacks or rants on religion etc.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Holiday. You all should too.

olllllo said:

I temporarily moved a bunch of posts to a hidden thread until I could go through them all. Some of them were well written and persuasive, unfortuately this isn't the forum for them. Others were needlessly OT, attacks or rants on religion etc.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Holiday. You all should too.

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I assume mine was one of those " isn't the forum for them". I apologize. I regretted it almost immediately, but those are things I feel strongly about.

This guy did all homebrewers in Alabama a big disservice. I doubt I see homebrewing legal there in my life time.

hoppymonkey said:

I assume mine was one of those " isn't the forum for them". I apologize. I regretted it almost immediately, but those are things I feel strongly about.

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Me too. This topic struck a nerve. It's all good, though. Just got paid which means an assortment of craft beers from the beer and wine store, and a bunch of new equipment.

Going back a few posts:

Jfulton, in Alabama there is no permit to own firearms. There is a concealed carry permit you can get, if you want to carry a pistol, concealed. If the guy is a previously convicted felon, then he would not be allowed to own firearms.

If I were to live in Alabama, I could own as many firearms ( long guns, Black guns, Pistols ) as I wanted. And it would be legal without a permit. I could have as munch ammo as I wanted as well. All of this of course as long as I was not a previously convicted felon.

Hope that clears that up.

Dont forget, Alabama put a man on the moon, builds the PAC 3, Space Shuttle, every major Auto Maker, and the SEC Championship Football team.

I hear it is the best kept secret out there.

.

It's my assumption that since this was posted in the General Beer forum most people expect updates about the facts surrounding this incident or general speculation, news reports, updates from the local beer clubs.

All of the other political, religious or social observations don't belong here. They belong in the debate forum.

Personal attacks or sweeping indictments of classes of people, cities, states, religions, etc... they really don't belong anywhere in the Brother and Sisterhood of Brewers but you all know where to find them too.

I'll make an effort to restore some of the content to the Debate thread this week, but I'll probably not include post with or references to posts with the KKK, teh gays and other jokes about the South.

Thanks.

Aww c'mon, we should at least be able to make fun of the south!!

That pic....They had 8 gallons of moonshine, yet they show just one mason jar of whiskey and all the beer gear?

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Sean said:

Aww c'mon, we should at least be able to make fun of the south!!

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At least if you are a Southerner!!!

Red Neck word of the day:! PORN, "since you is porn yourself another beer, how 'bout porn me one too"

Haveuseen1 said:

Going back a few posts:

Jfulton, in Alabama there is no permit to own firearms. There is a concealed carry permit you can get, if you want to carry a pistol, concealed. If the guy is a previously convicted felon, then he would not be allowed to own firearms.

If I were to live in Alabama, I could own as many firearms ( long guns, Black guns, Pistols ) as I wanted. And it would be legal without a permit. I could have as munch ammo as I wanted as well. All of this of course as long as I was not a previously convicted felon.

Hope that clears that up.

Dont forget, Alabama put a man on the moon, builds the PAC 3, Space Shuttle, every major Auto Maker, and the SEC Championship Football team.

I hear it is the best kept secret out there.

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I was thinking of the federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), but after looking more closely at it, it is for drug offenses, so hopefully it wouldn't apply to him.

I moved some of the debate content to the Debate Forum. It should be easy to find.

I don't think there will be very much substantive information anytime soon since the brewer has legal counsel now, but perhaps members of his club will keep us updated here.

I tried searching for news articles online and came up empty handed. I searched for all combinations of Alabama, Kade, homebrew, still, whiskey, etc. Has anyone found a news article?

I did the same and came up empty handed also except for an article about the same thing happening a couple years back.

pwndabear said:

HOLD ON ONE SECOND HERE:
The main issue I am seeing here is thatFederal Law supersedes all state laws as every individual state is part of the federal government. That's just how the system works:
If a state law is in conflict with a federal law, the federal law overpowers the state law. In this instance, when Carter made it legal to homebrew in the United States of America, any law that previously stated that it was illegal was made null and void.

This is basic knowledge of government workings here. So, with that in mind, this man is 100% innocent of his "crimes" in homebrewing beer.

If he had in fact distilled, however, he could face penalties as distilling is indeed illegal. For that, as stupid as it is, he is guilty all be it on THAT CHARGE ALONE and not in any way, shape, or form of homebrewing.

This needs to be seriously examined more closely...

Stupid Alabama old prickface sherrif in that picture needs to get his clock cleaned for turning something relatively harmless into a massacre of RIGHTS of the US Citizen.

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Not entirely true. Federal law supercedes state law only when the federal law poses a stricter standard. And in fact, what Carter signed into law was a bill allowing homebrewing on a federal level - in essence opening the blockade imposed from Prohibition. The bill explicitly states that states and municipalities have the right to restrict or prohibit the production of alcohol in any way they deem right.

cimirie said:

Not entirely true. Federal law supercedes state law only when the federal law poses a stricter standard. And in fact, what Carter signed into law was a bill allowing homebrewing on a federal level - in essence opening the blockade imposed from Prohibition. The bill explicitly states that states and municipalities have the right to restrict or prohibit the production of alcohol in any way they deem right.

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Cimirie is exaclty right this why there are still allowed to be dry counties and why Oregon is allowed to have a law only allowing home brew to be drank in your home.

Bane said:

Cimirie is exaclty right this why there are still allowed to be dry counties and why Oregon is allowed to have a law only allowing home brew to be drank in your home.

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Yup. The law here in ga is stricter than the federal law as well. Only allowing 50 gallons per year.

It's also, FWIW, why NYS doesn't have a law specifically allowing brewing. It's been tried a few times, but if there's some opposition (ie 'Hey, you can do that? Maybe we should ban it') it's allowed to wither and die.

hoppymonkey said:

Yup. The law here in ga is stricter than the federal law as well. Only allowing 50 gallons per year.

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Is this for one or two adults in the household?

Sigafoos said:

It's also, FWIW, why NYS doesn't have a law specifically allowing brewing. It's been tried a few times, but if there's some opposition (ie 'Hey, you can do that? Maybe we should ban it') it's allowed to wither and die.

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I never knew this, so I looked it up after reading your post. I'm sure we are good though, since my job, which has an obvious interest in the legality of its members' hobbies (NYPD), questioned me on it in 2006 and let it die. they must have determined I wasn't doing anything illegal.

Daybis said:

Is this for one or two adults in the household?

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Its per Head of Household based on Tax purposes

§ 3-5-4. Production of malt beverages by a head of household for consumption within own household


(a) A head of a household may produce 50 gallons of malt beverages in any one calendar year to be consumed within his or her own household without any requirement to be licensed for such purpose. No malt beverages produced under this subsection shall be sold or offered for sale. Malt beverages so produced shall not be subject to any excise tax imposed by this chapter.

(b) For purposes of this Code section, a single person who is not a dependent of another person for purposes of Georgia income taxation shall be considered a head of a household.

HISTORY: Code 1981, § 3-5-4, enacted by Ga. L. 1993, p. 537, § 1.

Head of the household. Man, there's a law that needs dragging into the 21st century!

One thing this thread subject points out is that we all should sign up and become members of the American Homebrew Association (if not already a member)

AHA Membership

Among the many things this organization does, one is to be the voice of homebrewers when it comes to beer related legislation, including the fight to legalize homebrewing in Alabama.

Sign up today to help those in Alabama! As far as I'm concerned, this is (was) reason enough to join.

pjj2ba said:

Among the many things this organization does, one is to be the voice of homebrewers when it comes to beer related legislation, including the fight to legalize homebrewing in Alabama.

Sign up today to help those in Alabama! As far as I'm concerned, this is (was) reason enough to join.

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Agreed. And it is important to mention that while homebrewing may be legal in your state, it might not be forever. There are a lot of neo-prohibitionist movements that would like to see reduction or restriction on any alcohol related issues.

I'm hoping that this guy's lawyer will be able to get this down to a Community Service and Fine offense. The sad thing is, this guy will have to spend thousands of dollars defending himself. He could go scott free if the lawyer could find some loopholes in the probable cause (going in looking for a meth lab, finding beer brewing in the house, and then finding some previously-existing ethanol and distilling equipment elsewhere on the property, but how much $$ is that gonna cost? (CAVEAT: I say this assuming there was no active distilling going on, but we all know how accurate the media are these days....).

I also hope that this event spurs the efforts to legalize home brewing in Alabama.

Finally, I want to say that I hate that cop in the picture. The look on his face, you'd think that he just busted Al Capone, Jesse James and Osama Bin Laden. I'm surprised he wasn't holding a tommy gun at port arms with criss-cross shotgun shell bandoleros. Sorry, I just can't stomach self-important people.

Not trying to debate legal stuff here, just my opinion.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Head of the household. Man, there's a law that needs dragging into the 21st century!

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+1, what does SWMBO have to do with it? She hates beer.

jturie said:

He could go scott free if the lawyer could find some loopholes in the probable cause (going in looking for a meth lab, finding beer brewing in the house, and then finding some previously-existing ethanol and distilling equipment elsewhere on the property, but how much $$ is that gonna cost?

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There's actually no loophole there. As long as they went to the house searching for criminality of any kind with enough reason to be there in the first place, anything they find is fair game. It's the same as searchign for drugs and finding a gun. The cop wasn't looking for the gun, but during a legal search, any contraband that is found is fair game.

jturie said:

Finally, I want to say that I hate that cop in the picture. The look on his face, you'd think that he just busted Al Capone, Jesse James and Osama Bin Laden. I'm surprised he wasn't holding a tommy gun at port arms with criss-cross shotgun shell bandoleros. Sorry, I just can't stomach self-important people.

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+1 I've thought all along that the reason he is so miserable is that he missed the days when he would get to pose for a picture with the open coffin of Billy the Kid or someone. The poor buggar only gets to pose with one jar of whiskey.

maxamuus said:

Here is the Sheriff with the contraband.

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Sorry for reviving the thread and quoting the pic, but it's from the first page.

I just love the hops, the Heineken keg, and the "Support Your Local Brewery" sticker... yup, looks he he's making shine from that stuff.

Wait a minute...

...yep, still wanna punch that cop in the face.

But, but....He is holding a bottle of clear liquid that is not necessarily water!