Phunhog said:It DOES NOT matter if you go over the limit!! I have yet to find a single case anywhere where a homebrewer was fined/prosecuted for brewing over the limit. It is not worth the TTB/ABC's limited resources to go after a homebrewer who brewed "over limit". I am not even convinced they care if you sell it. By "caring" I mean actually launch an investigation and try to prosecute you.
There are plenty of examples of people getting busted for selling beer without a license; why would homebrew be an exception? If you all you mean is that you can fly under the radar and probably get away with it on a small scale, you are certainly correct. But, in that case, how is selling homebrew different from anything else illegal?
Regarding the volume limits, I asked a few cop friends out of curiosity what it would take to get busted on something like this. They said they wouldn't initiate investigations on these lines just for the heck of it, but would possibly need to investigate if they got complaints. If you want to make wads of homebrew, don't piss off your neighbors.
I certainly agree that nobody is actively tracking your or my pipeline output, but to suggest that the law is without consequence is bad advice in my book.
"Proof" is a lot easier to constitute than many people seem to think.
Separately, the old "sell the cup, not the beer" chestnut is completely ineffective, and I'd bet somebody learns this fact the hard way every fall in every college town in America.
