SC - Distilling

[Heitman]

At 10:31 AM 4/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> Distilling is a no-no in the US without a special permit to do so 


AHEM.

This has been pontificated often enough that I chose to find out exactly
what kind of permits I would have to obtain to distill for personal use.
The truth is completely different from "popular knowledge".

Having contacted both regulatory and prosecuting authorities in each of the
following juristictions:

There are no laws of any kind governing  the distillation of alcohol for
personal consumption in ANY of the 127 seperate municipalities in the
greater St. Louis area. (per office of prosecuting attorney, each city)

There are no laws of any kind governing the distillation of alcohol for
personnal consumption in St. Louis City, St, Louis County, or in Jefferson,
Washington, Lincoln, or St. Charles counties (the six Missouri counties of
the greater St. Louis area) per office of prosecuting attorney, each county.

There are no laws of any kind governing the distillation of alcohol for
personal consumption in the State of Missouri. They defer to Federal
laws/juristiction. (per MO ATF). 

and, PER FEDERAL ATF AGENT MARCUS SAMUELS, ST. LOUIS OFFICE (three years
ago),  

There are NO applicable regulations governing distillation for personal
consumption that are pursued by the Federal ATF on an active level. Only
when such distillation reaches a level where it is being sold or traded for
profit, or when criminal acts such as death or destruction of property
occurs, does the ATF move to prosecute.

IOW, don't sell it, don't poison anybody with a single evenings drinking,
and don't blow up your neighbor's house, and the Federal ATF really could
care less. 

(your area milage may vary dramatically)

(BUT........

this is a personal warning from me.  Steam distillation creates a number of
different types of alcoholic compounds, many types of which are very fast
acting poisons (like a couple hours at most). Improper contols in the
distillation can result in sufficient amounts to a)kill or b) cause
explosions. 

What do I know about distilling?   how to do it right.  My father was a
pharmaceutical chemist, my brother-in-lawis a teaching anethesiologist, My
grandfather was a rural dentist who had to make his own anesthesia. Yes, I
can do it, and have done it. came out pretty good too. Made Rum, and Vodka.
Would someday like to try scotch. But I took all their teaching, plus my
chef school training *before* I made anything. And that only after almost
100 hours of research into the hows, whys, and potential problems.

But the personal death/brain damage/explosion risks are just too great for
Joe Amature to "try it once just to see if I can".  Unless you want to try
angeldust once too. same concept.

Franz
Calontir

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