How Many Gallons Of Moonshine Can You Make Legally For Yourself

It’s really fun learning how to make moonshine! We’re making legal moonshine here, which is an easy moonshine recipe. This is the best way to make moonshine without a still.

Plus, you can take this moonshine recipe and apply it to almost any flavor using fresh fruits. Here’s how to make Blackberry Moonshine – which is a delicious flavored moonshine.

 Homemade Moonshine Recipe

No need to worry about blowing up your moonshine still! Anyone can make this homemade blackberry moonshine recipe with just a few simple ingredients and a little patience.

Plus, we’ve added our 4 favorite ways to serve homemade moonshine below.

Want to make Apple Pie Moonshine? Here’s our locally famous recipe: Apple Pie Moonshine
 

How to Make Moonshine Without a Still?

Technically, moonshine is a homemade, unaged high proof grain alcohol, typically around 190 proof. The process to make moonshine from scratch, starting with a corn mash to distilling is quite difficult and illegal without a license.

There’s no need to go through this complicated process (with uncertain results) when we can legally buy 190 proof grain alcohol. A high proof alcohol is essentially the base for aged and flavored liquors such as whisky and vodka.

To make moonshine easy, we simply start with a high proof, quality base alcohol.

I typically use the brands Everclear, Mohawk or Nikolai and all of these are readily available in liquor stores.

The process is essentially the same for most fruit flavored moonshine recipes. You might want to check out our hugely popular Apple Pie Moonshine recipe too.
  

Homemade Moonshine Specialty Items:

To make moonshine at home, you need to have properly sealing jars.

 
 Ready to get started? Here’s how to make moonshine without a still.

Homemade Moonshine: Phase 1 (3 weeks)

Ingredients:

• 1 Liter 190 proof grain alcohol (Everclear), you can find it at liquor stores.
• 3 6oz containers of fresh blackberries

Directions:

1. Pour the grain alcohol into a 1/2 gallon jar with a lid.
2. Add all of the blackberries.
3. Crush the blackberries with a wooden spoon.
4. Seal the jar and let it sit for 3 weeks.
5. Shake the jar every other day.

Homemade Moonshine Ingredients – Grain Alcohol and Blackberries

Homemade Moonshine: Phase 2 (2 weeks)

After the alcohol and blackberries have sat for 3 weeks, you’ll make a simple syrup to add to the mixture.

Simple Syrup Ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups sugar

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil and add sugar.
2. Stir until the sugar dissolves then let cool to room temperature.
3. While the simple sugar mixture is cooling, take your alcohol and blackberry mixture and strain out the remaining blackberries.
4. Return the alcohol mixture into its jar and pour in the simple sugar mixture.
5. Seal the jar and let sit for 2 weeks or longer.

The resulting moonshine is strong at 95 proof with a wonderful blackberry flavor.
 
 

How To (Legally) Make Your Own Whiskey At Home

I’ll admit it — I’ve been watching way too much of the Discovery Channel docudrama Moonshiners during quarantine. There’s something very compelling about the idea of producing a unique bottle of whiskey, one where your own heart and soul was poured into the glass alongside the alcohol. Thanks to the laws here in the United States, though, distilling and bottling your own spirits is difficult at best — and an illegal and impossible task to accomplish at worst. But you can still technically “make” your own whiskey at home, unique to your personal taste and style, without breaking any laws.

Advertisment

How Whiskey Is Made

There are four components to the whiskey production process (which, I can attest from experience, will be hammered into your brain more solidly than your own address should you ever decide to take the WSET Spirits Certification course).

The first step is processing the raw materials. For a whiskey, this usually means grinding up a bunch of grains and cooking them in a large pot. The goal of this step is to take the starch compounds in the grains and turn them into sugar, something that can more easily be digested and used in the next step of the process.

Sampling some of the grains as they are being cooked at Tuthilltown Distillery in New York

Once you’ve got a big barrel of sugary liquid, the next thing to do is to add yeast and allow the liquid to ferment. This process can take a couple days, and the end result is that the sugar in the mixture is used by the yeast to multiply and grow. The three results of that process are heat, carbon dioxide, and alcohol.

The tricky thing here is keeping the yeast happy — too much heat and they die off (which is why commercial distilleries have water jackets around their fermentation tanks: to take away the heat produced as part of this process).

But in the end, at some point the yeast finishes their feast and what’s left is a mildly alcoholic beer.

Up until this point, if you want to do this at home you are 100% in the clear from a legal perspective… usually.

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and you should consult your own counsel if you have any questions.

But home brewing is a common pastime here in the States, and I personally enjoy brewing my own ginger beer using champagne yeast and fresh ginger. This next step, though, is where you can run into problems with the law.

The smaller pot still that’s used for testing new ideas at Still Austin in Austin, Texas.

The process of distilling the mildly alcoholic beer into liquor is the regulated step in the process.

This step is all about concentrating that mildly alcoholic liquid (usually about 10% alcohol by volume) into something much stronger using a still.

Because alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, if you heat your beer and condense the vapors coming off of it you can selectively capture the alcohol rich portions which is your “new make” whiskey.

Here in the United States, there is no way to legally distill alcohol for personal home use without a license. See 27 CFR § 19.51:

A person may not produce distilled spirits at home for personal use. Except as otherwise provided by law, distilled spirits may only be produced by a distilled spirits plant registered with TTB under the provisions of 26 U.S.C. 5171. All distilled spirits produced in the United States are subject to the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 5001.

Is Making Moonshine Legal In Missouri? The 6 Correct Answer

Are you looking for an answer to the topic “is making moonshine legal in missouri“? We answer all your questions at the website barkmanoil.com in category: Newly updated financial and investment news for you. You will find the answer right below.

Not only is it legal to own a still in the state of Missouri, it is legal to produce up to 200 gallons per year per household of moonshine for personal use and not for sale. This also means basic usage of a still for distilling water, vinegar, essential oils is also legal.

A Liquor Manufacturer–Solicitor license allows for the manufacturing, distilling or blending of intoxicating liquor of all kinds within the state of Missouri and the privilege of selling to licensed Wholesalers and soliciting orders for the sale of intoxicating liquor of all kinds, to, by or through a licensed …In Missouri, for example, a person 21 or over may produce up to 100 gallons of spirits per year for personal consumption without a permit. But federal law trumps state law, and to the feds, distilling at home for personal consumption is illegal, period.

Is Making Moonshine Legal In Missouri

Is it illegal to make your own alcohol in Missouri?

A Liquor Manufacturer–Solicitor license allows for the manufacturing, distilling or blending of intoxicating liquor of all kinds within the state of Missouri and the privilege of selling to licensed Wholesalers and soliciting orders for the sale of intoxicating liquor of all kinds, to, by or through a licensed …

See also  Is It Dubbed? The 8 Top Answers

Can you make your own whiskey in Missouri?

In Missouri, for example, a person 21 or over may produce up to 100 gallons of spirits per year for personal consumption without a permit. But federal law trumps state law, and to the feds, distilling at home for personal consumption is illegal, period.

Is It Legal? Making your own liquor

Is It Legal? Making your own liquor
Is It Legal? Making your own liquor

Images related to the topicIs It Legal? Making your own liquor

Is It Legal? Making Your Own Liquor

Can I make moonshine at home?

While individuals of legal drinking age may produce wine or beer at home for personal or family use, Federal law strictly prohibits individuals from producing distilled spirits at home (see 26 United States Code (U.S.C.)

What states have legal moonshine?

In contrast to Florida, some state’s home distilling laws allow “legal” moonshining, even though it’s considered illegal federally. Those states include Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

How many gallons of alcohol can you make a year?

Today, federal rules say a household with two adults can brew up to 200 gallons of wine and the same amount of beer each year. (A few states have their own laws prohibiting the practice.) The 1978 law didn’t legalize moonshining, though; you still can’t brew spirits for private consumption.

Is it legal to make mead in Missouri?

The aggregate amount of the beer, mead, cider, and table wine permitted to be produced under this act, with respect to any legal residence, shall not exceed 15 gallons for each quarter of a calendar year.

Is it legal to make moonshine in Kansas?

State Overview state laws

Residents of Kansas can own a still and use it for non-moonshine related activities such as distilling water, essential oils, etc. The production of ethanol or personal use or resell is illegal.

See some more details on the topic is making moonshine legal in missouri here:

Is It Illegal To Make Moonshine in Missouri? – American Home …

Yes, limited right for home use only. Missouri Statute 311.055 provides that, “No person at least twenty-one years of age shall be required to …

+ View Here

Is Moonshine Legal In Missouri? – Productos Furia

It is illegal to make moonshine by Federal law, but Missouri law does not forbid it as long as it is limited to 200 gallons per year.

+ Read More

Understanding the Law – Moonshine Still Pro

A few states have legalized, including here in Missouri, the small volume distilling of alcohol for personal consumption. However this is State Law only and …

+ Read More

Liquor Manufacturer–Solicitor | ATC – Missouri Division of …

… distilling or blending of intoxicating liquor of all kinds within the state of … all federal laws and regulations governing the manufacture of liquor, …

+ View More Here

What is the recipe for moonshine?

How do home distillers work?

How Can I Legally Distill at Home?

Photo courtesy of Clear Water Distilling

At StillDragon, we get a lot of questions about the best ways to legally distill spirits at home. Home distilling is an issue that can be both confusing and straightforward at the same time.

We are not lawyers by any stretch of the imagination, and we are definitely not licensed to give legal advice, so nothing in this article is intended to replace the advice of a licensed legal professional.

The short answer is that distilling spirits without a license is illegal at the federal level and that supersedes any statutes in your state.

Several states have home distilling laws worded in such a way that if it were legal federally, then it would be legal there… but some states would still ban distilling spirits at home regardless of federal legality.

Some local enforcement agencies turn a blind eye on small stills for personal use, since the laws were put into place primarily to ensure that taxes are collected. However, unless you have a license, you can be penalized for distilling spirits at home.

Please do your own research on home distilling laws and/or seek legal counsel before distilling any spirits or even purchasing any distilling equipment, because in some states it’s illegal to even own a still.

At the federal level, things are pretty cut and dry when it comes to distilling spirits at home. The U.S.

Tax and Trade Bureau's (TTB) website states that “while individuals of legal drinking age may produce wine or beer at home for personal or family use, federal law strictly prohibits individuals from producing distilled spirits at home (see 26 United States Code (U.S.C.) 5042(a)(2) and 5053(e)).”

Home Distilling Laws: Is it Legal to Make Moonshine in your State?

Protect yourself by learning the home distilling laws. Easily learn if it is legal to make moonshine in your state. 

Have you considered making moonshine but you are worried about the legalities of it? Many would-be shiners are interested in making their own spirits at home but are unsure if the legal ramifications of this fun new hobby. 

Making moonshine is not a new pastime, but it is one riddled with issues with both the law and the tax man. Navigating these laws is not always easy. This is why we have created this simple guide to help you to know the laws in your state as well as the federal laws. 

via GIPHY

Moonshine has long been known as an illicit spirit enjoyed by the few able to either make it or lucky enough to have a friend who is a moonshiner.

However, recently many have been questioning whether moonshine is still illegal. After all, the combination of many hit shows highlighting the process and lifestyle of moonshining as well as the presence of ‘moonshine’ on many supermarket shelves have many scratching their heads. 

 Why is Moonshine Illegal?

via GIPHY

To understand where the legality of moonshine stands currently, you really need to understand its origins. Making moonshine is not illegal, however, you need to complete the appropriate steps, get the appropriate permits, and live in the right part of the country (and in many cases, the world). 

You also need to pay the appropriate taxes. Making moonshine is actually a tax infraction. 

The Birth of a Nation

via GIPHY

While the act of fermenting alcohol was not established along with the United States. It is actually believed that early man evolved to be able to enjoy rotten fruit which in many cases were fermented. Thus we started getting drunk long before the birth of the United States. 

While making moonshine was not a new thing, it certainly was a popular pastime in early America, especially in the grain-producing states. The reason for this is because the early settlers quickly discovered that their grain was worth much more distilled in moonshine than sold for feed or food.

In fact, whiskey could actually be used as a form of currency during this time. Of course, this practice was in place before the United States found their independence, an act that would affect moonshiners greatly. 

A Whiskey Tax

via GIPHY

This happy moonshine making utopia came to a crashing halt thanks to Alexander Hamilton.  This founding father helped draft the Constitution, served as the first secretary of the treasury and was the founder and chief architect of the American financial system.

Of course, he also needed to figure out a way to pay for the debts associated with the American Revolution and decided that the days of moonshining had to end and it was time to tax spirits. 

Unsurprisingly, the farmers were not on board after just fighting against the British tax tariffs. 

This tension exploded with the Whiskey rebellion. This crackdown on moonshining was led by George Washington and resulted in a large loss of life with the resulting Whiskey Rebellion.

And so moonshine is born. Of course, the name moonshine refers to making illicit spirits ‘by the light of the moon’. 

 Check out What is Moonshine Prohibition? 

 Is Moonshine Legal in the United States? 

via GIPHY

First of all, size does not matter. When it comes to stills at least. It is often believed that stills under a certain size are legal but larger stills are not. This is simply not true. The government is more concerned about how you plan to use your still. 

However, just because it is legal to own a still does not mean it is legal to distill spirits in your home. In fact,  it is illegal to use your still to distill alcohol without first having a ‘distilled spirits permit’ or a ‘federal fuel alcohol permit.’ It does not matter if the spirits you are making are only for personal use and not for sale. 

How to Legally Distill Spirits at Home

via GIPHY

Fortunately, there are two different avenues available for those who want to distill at home with a permit. One is tailored to those who want to take a commercial route and the other is for those who are not interested in selling spirits. 

Federal Distilled Permit

State alcohol laws for Missouri

Not only is it legal to own a still in the state of Missouri, it is legal to produce up to 200 gallons per year per household of moonshine for personal use and not for sale. This also means basic usage of a still for distilling water, vinegar, essential oils is also legal.

I could not find details on transportation of distilled spirits for personal use but because it is illegal to sell moonshine it could be likely they could consider transporting moonshine to be an attempt to sell it so it is advised to not transport bottles of moonshine since the fine is $10,000 dollars for the first offense, $25,000 for the second, and $50,000 for the third offense.

Section 311.055.1

No person at least twenty-one years of age shall be required to obtain a license to manufacture intoxicating liquor, as defined in section 311.020, for personal or family use. The aggregate amount of intoxicating liquor manufactured per household shall not exceed two hundred gallons per calendar year if there are two or more persons over the age of twenty-one years in such household, or one hundred gallons per calendar year if there is only one person over the age of twenty-one years in such household. Any intoxicating liquor manufactured under this section shall not be sold or offered for sale

• Missouri alcohol and tobacco control
• Since there are no restrictions of owning a still legally the production of ethanol for use as fuel should be legal, but the production of ethanol fuel still requires a federal license for production

Missouri distillery licenses
Missouri has only a standard distillery license and no micro distillery options. The license costs $450 per year, as well as a tax bond.

There are several licenses you need to request to legally manufacture spirits. Below are the federal licenses only. Additional state requirements will need to be followed as well.

You must submit a request for a license to manufacture spirits: TTB 5110.41 Basic permit.

This license only allows you to produce spirits. You also need a license for the distilling equipment / distillery: TTB 5100.24 Distilled spirit plant

For manufacturing ethanol fuel you will need to submit a request for a TTB 5110.74 for a federal license.

Legally you can manufacture your own spirits for personal use up to 200 gallons per year. Selling spirits though carry heavy fines, and even transportation could be considered an attempt to sell.

• First offense is a $10,000 dollars fine, no prison sentence.
• Second offense is a $25,000 dollars fine, no prison sentence.
• Third offense is a $50,000 dollars fine, no prison sentence.

Current federal laws allow citizens the right to own a still and operate it for non-alcohol production.

This means legally you can:

TAGS State laws Federal laws moonshine Missouri

The Truth About US Law and Distilling Alcohol at Home

Historically, people have distilled grappas, spirits, water, and essential oils in their homes for centuries. The copper stills we have come to know as “whiskey stills” or “moonshine stills” are old designs that have been in use around the world for a long time. It wasn’t really until the late 19th century that they developed their nickname and reputation.

There are many legends, myths, and downright lies about owning a whiskey still, using a still to make non-alcohol products, and distilling moonshine or other alcohols at home. Know your facts about distilling laws, and don’t settle for lies.

US Federal Moonshine Still Laws

Still ownership law is overseen by a department in the US Treasury – the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau.

US Federal law states that it is legal for anyone to own a still or distilling equipment if it is used for “legal purposes.

” This means that if you are a collector or are interested in having a whiskey still as a decoration, you do not need to apply for any federal licenses or register your still. You may simply continue to use it for legal purposes.

Federal law also sees the distillation of non-alcoholic products as a “legal purpose.” If you are using your still to distill water or essential oils, you also do not need to apply for any federal permit or register the still.

Copper stills are often also used in chemistry laboratories, and for various scientific experiments and procedures. If you own and use a “moonshine still” (any design of distilling equipment) for these purposes, you do not need to register or license your still.

Still Ownership Myth #1:

One of the most common misconceptions is that federal law says that people can’t own stills larger than 1 gallon. But, federal law clearly states that a person can own any size still for a legal purpose.

Still Ownership Myth #2:

---