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TheCarnie

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So i noticed how evn some of the smallest offenses to the law are kind of frowned upon and not condoned to be discussed here. For example accepting kegs from a bar, or distilling. So i have to ask, anyone here stop brewing after 100 gal annually?
 
Yep, In fact, my last beer I only fermented four gallons, because had I gone five I would've been over the limit ;)
 
Ok, i forgot about the multiperson clause, same thing, who stops at the limit?
 
200 gallons is 40 batches (at 5 gallons each), which is just over 3 batches per month. Yeah, I'm under that.

I've heard it said that as long as you don't have 200 gallons at one time, you can't get caught for it... ie, no proof. I just don't brew that much because I don't have the time and can't drink that much.
 
TheCarnie said:
So i noticed how evn some of the smallest offenses to the law are kind of frowned upon and not condoned to be discussed here. For example accepting kegs from a bar, or distilling. So i have to ask, anyone here stop brewing after 100 gal annually?
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So you intentionally posted a topic that may well lead people to admit having broken the law?

Distilling doesn't exactly qualify as a "small offense." It's illegal under federal law and will result in a felony conviction.
 
67 posts are you're trying to stir up ****?

You been paying attention to any of the stuff being discussed in state legislatures? There have been a couple of states that have just legalized homebrewing, but a homebrewer was just arrested in Alabama and there are murmors about a few other states not viewing our hobby as favorably.

The owner of the site - the guy whose sandbox we get to play in - had decided that he doesn't want to be peripherally involved in any of the controversial areas. So, if you're underage, lurk don't post. If you want to talk drugs... there are other forums for that. If you want to talk about distilling, there are plenty of other forums for that.

Tx doesn't want to risk being shut down or sued, and I don't blame him in the least.
 
TheCarnie said:
So i noticed how evn some of the smallest offenses to the law are kind of frowned upon and not condoned to be discussed here. For example accepting kegs from a bar, or distilling. So i have to ask, anyone here stop brewing after 100 gal annually?
Click to expand...

For one, you don't have to ask. Also, this has been discussed several times. I remember a thread recently where some members thought it would be prudent to publicly display how many gallons over the legal amount they had brewed.

However, brewing amounts are very hard to calculate, much less prove. I couldn't tell you how much I've brewed over the last several years, and I highly doubt the police would be able to either. On the other hand, if you have distilling equipment in your home, that's strong proof that you are distilling.

Not discussing illegal activities keeps the members, the administrators, and the board itself out of trouble. Is it really that important to brag about that keg you illegally got from the bar down the street, or that 10 gallons you went over the 200 this year?
 
Personally, if someone wants to break a law like distilling, doing drugs, or brewing over the limit, I don't care.

But to advertise it on a public forum...it's only reckless, but it's also endangering ruining the forum for the folks who either *don't* do those things, or choose not to advertise that they do.
 
The point is that we don't discuss anything illegal here. What you chose to do is one thing, what you chose to believe is another thing, but yes, we don't discuss things that are illegal here, whether it is distilling, or pot, or stealing cornies, or perhaps yes, announcing how much we brew.....

Or allow underagers to be on here.

And we do that for two major reasons.

1) respect for TX and the Mods here for putting together this wonderful supportive site. That is the biggest one...We love this place and want to protect it.

2)Secondly we respect our hobby, and alcohol, and most of us understand the precarious razor's edge that it sits on. We understand prohibition and the fact that 40 years after prohibition was rescinded our hobby was still Illegal.

So that's why whether we agree with the laws or not we refrain from discussing anything that could give us a bad name on here.....

Remember homebrewing wasn't re-legalized after the Volstead act was repealed in 1933, it wasn't legalized until 1978, and it took a lot of work in those 45 years to get it to happen....and despite it's federal legalization, it is STILL on a State by State basis.

Heck homebrewing was just legalized in Utah last year....and I think is still illegal in at least one state.

Some folks still think you can go blind drinking homebrew.
Other's can't distinguish what we're doing with making meth.

Hell even some cops look on what we're doing with suspicion.

Don't believe me? Check out this Cops episode if you haven't already....look at what "John Law" has to say about our little hobby. "The concotion he was making could be deadly..." :rolleyes:



Hell, if MADD gets ever gets their way the oldschool version of prohibition may be like a picnic, compared to what it would be like in modern times. You think they'd let us make anything? (HomeWine making was sort of legal during prohibition as long as you didn't sell)

Look what may be happening in Canada; DUI legislation may expand to allow random breathalyzer tests

No probable cause would be necessary to be forced to breath into a tube.

So yeah, some of us are protective of our good name...and work damn hard to elevate our hobby and beer culture in general.

Read this for some enlightenment...It was one of our members https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/ohio-university-homebrew-festival-shut-down-140105/#post1590903

And this from just a couple weeks ago https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/alabama-homebrewer-arrested-194144/?highlight=alabama

And finally. This IS the largest forum about the production of hobby alcohol...most of the time we rank #1 in a google search on homebrewring. And in this surveillance society we live in, I think that it is patently naive to think that the govment doesn't have a few surveillance bots pointed right at our forum looking for certain keywords....

So yeah, I refrain from mentioning how much I brew in any given year....It's really noone's business. Who knows what could happen down the line...I don't want the purtian booze police knocking on my door.

bigbrother_copy.jpg


;)


But if you don't respect the rules, I'm sure there's a few forums out there, that are a bit more lax, and maybe don't respect the hobby as much as we do.


But yeah, it smells like TROLL **** in here.....

454dbe4b-6a87-4e0d-8c0d-5ff7b6ca9569


:mug:
 
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First, 200 gal/yr. comes out to over 1/2 gal everyday. That's too much beer for me to drink. Second, the purpose of this forum is not to point fingers and show how hypocritical we are by how much beer did we brew over the legal limit. It's like going 120mph down the freeway. It's fun while you're doing it and bragging about it but once the handcuffs are on, it's no longer fun. If you do go over, don't be stupid and brag. If you go a little over, just "slow down" so you don't get hurt. The types of mistakes we should post here are "Damn! My beer has a colony growing in it and they are demanding voting rights!" Do what you are suppose to do so you don't ruin if for the rest of us.
 
I'm convinced the 200 gallon/limit is in place just to give them another reason to arrest you if they THINK you're running an unlicensed commercial operation but can't otherwise prove it. Even the most prolific homebrewers I know never have 200 gallons either fermenting or kegged/bottled, and it's easy enough to argue that if you DID, some of it was brewed in prior years.

But, they go down in your basement and find a 3bbl system and a couple dozen filled Sanke kegs, it's going to be hard to argue that you're really "homebrewing."
 
I can't fathom brewing 200 gallons even on a 10 gallon system. Is this a hobby or a full time job? I'm glad they give us such a large number to work with, as I'll probably never approach it.

Here's a question: I brew with a buddy in his basement, we split the costs and split the product. Does that mean we can brew 400 gallons, 200 for each household, or does the fact that all the brewing is going on in his basement mean that we're limited to 200?
 
klyph said:
I can't fathom brewing 200 gallons even on a 10 gallon system. Is this a hobby or a full time job? I'm glad they give us such a large number to work with, as I'll probably never approach it.

Here's a question: I brew with a buddy in his basement, we split the costs and split the product. Does that mean we can brew 400 gallons, 200 for each household, or does the fact that all the brewing is going on in his basement mean that we're limited to 200?
Click to expand...

Depends on the state. I believe some states it can't even be moved off of the premises.
 
TheCarnie said:
So i noticed how evn some of the smallest offenses to the law are kind of frowned upon and not condoned to be discussed here. For example accepting kegs from a bar, or distilling. So i have to ask, anyone here stop brewing after 100 gal annually?
Click to expand...

Shooter said:
I live in a multi-person household, I get to brew 200!!
Click to expand...

i thought the limit was 200 gallons per year per household, no matter how many people in the household? :confused: i may be wrong though.

ajwillys said:
200 gallons is 40 batches (at 5 gallons each), which is just over 3 batches per month. Yeah, I'm under that.

I've heard it said that as long as you don't have 200 gallons at one time, you can't get caught for it... ie, no proof. I just don't brew that much because I don't have the time and can't drink that much.
Click to expand...

i try to brew once a month times 12 monthes=60 gallons, which is all i have time for throughout the year. so i, myself, really don't worry about it cause i never even go over 100 gallons/year anyway. :mug:
 
the_bird said:
I'm convinced the 200 gallon/limit is in place just to give them another reason to arrest you if they THINK you're running an unlicensed commercial operation but can't otherwise prove it.
Click to expand...

I don't think they are looking for an excuse to search your home for excessive brewing (aka probable cause). If you think about the 100/200gal limit, that's a LOT of beer. If you need to brew more than that, there are bigger issues that your friends and family need to visit you about. If you look at the records from the middle ages when everyone brewed beer and didn't drink water and They didn't use that much. My grandfather is pure German and when I told him about the 200 gal limit, he said, "das ist zu viel Bier". So, there.
 
flyboy said:
I don't think they are looking for an excuse to search your home for excessive brewing (aka probable cause). If you think about the 100/200gal limit, that's a LOT of beer. If you need to brew more than that, there are bigger issues that your friends and family need to visit you about. If you look at the records from the middle ages when everyone brewed beer and didn't drink water and They didn't use that much. My grandfather is pure German and when I told him about the 200 gal limit, he said, "das ist zu viel Bier". So, there.
Click to expand...

That's what I mean, though; if you've got THAT much beer, it's clearly not for personal use only (if you were DRINKING that much each year, your stockpiles would never build up, anyway). So, they see what's clearly a commercial operation, they can bust you without seeing actual evidence of sales taking place.
 
TheCarnie said:
So i noticed how evn some of the smallest offenses to the law are kind of frowned upon and not condoned to be discussed here. For example accepting kegs from a bar, or distilling. So i have to ask, anyone here stop brewing after 100 gal annually?
Click to expand...

Well, it's not that "small offenses to the law" are frowned upon, it's more that this is NOT the place to talk of those "small offenses". If you break the law, that's YOUR business. But I will not condone illegal acts, and I would hope that if others break the law they're smart enough to not brag about it. That goes for all laws- speeding, possession of pot, distilling, whatever.

There are plenty of websites for discussing all sorts of illegal activities, so we definitely don't need that here.

Would you like us to be more supportive? "Oh, you stole kegs! Goody!" just doesn't really seem to be the right response, does it? At least not here in this forum.

No one here is trying to be the voice of morality. It's just when something is illegal, we'll call you on it and ask you to not discuss it on the forum. I really don't think that's too much to ask. If keeping illegal activities clandestine is really too hard for you, perhaps a different forum would be more to your liking.
 
the_bird said:
That's what I mean, though; if you've got THAT much beer, it's clearly not for personal use only (if you were DRINKING that much each year, your stockpiles would never build up, anyway). So, they see what's clearly a commercial operation, they can bust you without seeing actual evidence of sales taking place.
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Nope.

Edit: Sorry, just saying "nope" was wrong.

It's this part that bothered me:

the_bird said:
So, they see what's clearly a commercial operation, they can bust you without seeing actual evidence of sales taking place.
Click to expand...

This statement is completely wrong, and take it from me, I know it for a fact. There are very few laws which allow presumption like this. Drug laws in some states allow for presumption of sale based on quantity, but even that is not as common as most people think. There is nothing that states one can be charged with the sale of alcohol based purely on the possession of a large quantity of it.

The ability to prove that someone is actually brewing more than the legal limit is something I doubt most law enforcement agencies would bother with. You would have to have a massive operation going, or live in Alabama, for the authorities to look that far into a purely beer brewing operation. And at no point would one be charged with sale unless there was something to indicate that sales were taking place.
 
Airborneguy said:
Nope.

Edit: Sorry, just saying "nope" was wrong.

It's this part that bothered me:



This statement is completely wrong, and take it from me, I know it for a fact. There are very few laws which allow presumption like this. Drug laws in some states allow for presumption of sale based on quantity, but even that is not as common as most people think. There is nothing that states one can be charged with the sale of alcohol based purely on the possession of a large quantity of it.

The ability to prove that someone is actually brewing more than the legal limit is something I doubt most law enforcement agencies would bother with. You would have to have a massive operation going, or live in Alabama, for the authorities to look that far into a purely beer brewing operation. And at no point would one be charged with sale unless there was something to indicate that sales were taking place.
Click to expand...

I'm not explaining myself very well, so I'll stop after this.

The law, being written the way it is, would theoretically allow them to bust you for excessive production in lieu of busting you for illegal (non-licensed) sales. They WOULD need evidence of sales for the latter; they WOULDN'T need any evidence of cash changing hands if they find thirty Sankes of "home"brew in your basement. They'd just bust you for violation of the legal limits, not for selling unlicensed/untaxed brew.

Now, I've never heard of anyone actually being arrested for this - but I stand by my belied that the law puts in a limit as a backdoor mechanism for shutting down a suspected commercial operation even without proof of sales.
 
Alright so is homebrewing legal in Kentucky? My friend and I brew in his front yard and cops drive by every now and then and never stop but I assume one day one will and I want to know the law if he tries to do anything. I have done a little searching but couldn't find anything definite. Does anyone know the law for Kentucky? Thanks
 
beesy said:
3 - we don't talk about marijuana
Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f96/marijuana-79257/


Started by Tx, nonetheless. If it discusses the legalities behind criminalization/decriminalization behind any "currently illegal" activity, then I'm assuming it's permissible on here. If it delves into the production, cultivation, distribution, etc of illegal substances, that's the no-no.
 
yummybeer said:
i thought the limit was 200 gallons per year per household, no matter how many people in the household? :confused: i may be wrong though.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain it's 100 gallons per person, but no more than 200 gallons for a household of two or more people. Actually, when you look at it, the 200 gallons isn't a bonus, but a limit. If you have a household of six adults, you still only get 200 gallons.
 
beesy said:
Isn't it about time a mod just locks this and says:

1 - we don't talk about distilling
2 - we don't talk about brewing over the legal limit
3 - we don't talk about marijuana
Period.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=39867&limit=recent
Click to expand...
Yup.

The Debate Forum is a place where politics, religion, laws, morality, etc can be discussed openly. Those topics are verboten in the technical forums. Open discussions about illicit activity are not allowed regardless of the subforum. We can't catch every little comment, and we can't/won't protect individuals who choose to divulge too much information. We can and do look out for the forum and its continued success. HBT never has and will never condone illicit activity.
 
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