Eisbier Notsomuch Illegal Anymore?

[cactusgarrett]

I've been meaning to post this for a bit now and haven't seen anything come out about this. The short of it is that according to the Feds, homebrewing eisbier is NOT illegal. Details below:

In the BasicBrewingRadio podcast from 15Jan2009, at 07:20, James Spencer receives a question related to freezing/concentrating beer, and subsequently states what we've all seen mentioned in hooch threads here - that it's a form of distilling and therefore illegal.

The following week (22Jan2009), though, at 01:23 James recants after contacting the ATF and being redirected to Art Reznick at the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Buerau (TTB). Reznick states that according to TTB regulations, the method to make eisbier isn't illegal, and that any legalities are with regards to tax classifications - which are not applicable to homebrewers performing the eisbier method for personal use ("as defined by 26USC5053E").

Basic Brewing Radio - 22Jan2009

Just thought I'd bring it up for those of you who felt handcuffed by the letter of the law. Happy eis-ing!

 

[Revvy]

Yeah I listenned to it yesterday and was gonna post it but I was brewing at a friends all day.

 

[tuckferrorists]

very interesting. especially because most people that come upon the idea of making an eisbier is by accident.

 

[flyangler18]

Listening to it right now as I'm typing this post.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Now you tell me!!!

I have several fully frozen kegs in my garage that I could have removed the lid on and inserted a 2X4, cut off the bottom so I can push it out, and have me one hellacious beercicle...

 

[PseudoChef]

Never was illegal. This was covered on that particular Jamil episode almost two years ago.

EDIT: Could rant about something, but I'll just shut my mouth.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Other than your reference to that Jamil episode, the Basic Brewing Radio show was the first i've heard of it NOT being illegal.

I just figured that since the search function is a little tougher to use lately, I couldn't find anything about it around here, and that the majority of people (often me included) just hear something and take it as gospel and/or pass it along, a "refresher" might be a welcome piece of information.

 

[PseudoChef]

I hear ya. I wasn't gonna rant about using the search function or anything like that. Something completely unrelated, don't worry!