? Legalities of Homebrewing

[Richard Bainter]

Call me anal, but when I'm getting ready to give ~100 gallons of alcohol
away at 2 SCA events in the spring, I thought it best to read up on the
legalties of it all. (Not to mention, it's better to be educated on
these issues no matter what.)

In article <327BF471.2DF6 at bellsouth.net>,
Steve Waddell  <waddell at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>>The law, as I understand it, says 100 gal, or 200 gal, for household use.

In Texas, it seems to be 200 whether married or not.

>A gift, in the normal meaning of the word, is defendable as 
>household use.  

You know, there are several things about the Texas law that make me
question lots of points, a few because I'm in the SCA. The SCA often has
Arts & Sciences displays that involve alcohol, require an entry fee to
the event (but not the A&S specifically), and I doubt have ever gotten
written consent from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

As well, can we actually give it away as "household use"? The Texas law,
as posted on www.aob.org, doesn't state that that we can give it to
"guests", but the Illinois law does. As well, where does it say that
it's for household use? It states that it's for the person and their
family. (Which I'm sure has a very definate legal definition somewhere.)

>I often give it away, including to a few cops, with nary a complaint.  

Oh yeah. No complaints, but is it legal? *grin*

>Also, I think AOB has some material on legalities at aob.org

This is where I read up on the Texas law, and some things I wonder about
are:

1) The Texas law, http://www.aob.org/legal/texas.html, states: 
   
    (a) The head of a family or an unmarried adult may produce for the use
    of his family or himself not more than 200 gallons of wine, ale, malt
    liquor, or beer, per year. 

   Alternately the Illinois law, http://www.aob.org/legal/illinois.html,
   states:

    ...by simple fermentation and without distillation, if it is made solely
    for the use of the maker, his family and his guests. 

   so can I give it away to friends or not in Texas?

2) The Texas law states:

    Only wine made from the normal alcoholic fermentation of the juices of
    dandelions or grapes, raisins, or other fruits may be produced under
    this section. 

   No where does it state that you can make it from honey. (ie. mead)
   Oversite or illegal? Making melomels (even with the littlest of
   fruit) seems legal, but pure mead and metheglins aren't covered.

3) In regards to "delivery" to tastings, etc, the Texas law states:

    (1) no charge of any kind is made for the wine, ale, malt liquor, or
    beer, for its delivery, or for attendance at the event;

   Does this include the entry fee for the tasting? I know that we just
   recently entered a competition that required a fee. Is that for
   delivery of the alcohol? (I know, stretching it a lot, but delivery
   does include someone giving it and someone accepting it. It doesn't
   say which way the exchange of money is to take place.)

   As for the SCA, we have site fees in order to attend most events. Does
   this mean that if we have a display, competetion, etc, that involves
   alcohol that we're breaking the law?

4) Another for the SCA folks is that the Texas law states:

    (2) the commission consents in writing to the delivery.

   Since I doubt anyone has gotten permission for our Arts & Sciences
   displays, are we always breaking the law? It seems to me that it's
   very clear that this is for all "organized tasting, evaluation,
   competition, or literary review". No matter how disorganized the SCA
   is, these are still organized tastings.

I'm not meaning to scare anyone about this, since I doubt we'll change,
but I do want people to know, and to try to find out the real answers as
to the legality of some issues. (ie. giving alcohol away and SCA Arts &
Sciences displays that involve alochol)

I may have to call TABC just to verify these points.

Ciao,

-- 
Richard Bainter          Mundanely     |    Network and System Administrator
Pug                      Generally     |   Interval Systems, Inc.  Austin, TX
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