An issue of safety...

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

I never said you couldn't have an opinion. This is part of the discussion in which I asked if you were gonna stop stillin due to your opinion of the dangers of the hobby until you go through a government regulated safety course. Just to make sure you don't blow up your garage. It is just a question. And it is my opinion that government is not the answer.

So in your opinion, just to clarify my interpretation, if hobby distillation was to become legal or decriminalized, any adult, regardless of skill, competency, or consideration for safety should be allowed to make a still out of anything they want to and run it anyway they want to and not have to get any flack for it u less something disastrous happens?

[pfshine]

OK this is getting pedantic and I'm gonna stop wasting my time on it. Good luck building bigger government to protect you from yourself.

[skow69]

I would never recommend that anybody distill on an open fire for this reason. Even in the Balkans, a double boiler is used on every single still. The fire is almost always in a contained environment beneath the still.

Har! "Even in the Balkans"? Dude, I hope the National Association for the Advancement of Transylvanians doesn't see that crack. We could have marches and riots and shit.

Har!

[S-Cackalacky]

Great conversation gentlemen, however I think many have gotten off track. The goal of the Hobby Distiller's Association is to put hobby distilling on a par with hobby brewing and wine making. All the 1979 law says is that anyone over the age of 21 may brew up to 200 gallons of beer/wine per year in a 2+ person household without a permit. Period. The language in the legislation we are pursuing automatically decriminalizes and legalizes the distillation of alcohol. My guess is there will be a limit of some sort, but issue has not been heavily discussed. Time will tell.

The manufacture and sale of distilling equipment is legal in the US. Lets don't let our fears of what might happen when hobby distilling become legal get us off track of our primary goal - Legalization! Coming together as a distilling community is why we started the Hobby Distiller's Association. Please join now as a member or renew your membership for 2015.

At the HDA we are not even thinking about additional regulations about how to distill or what method of distilling you must use. That is nonsense. No one tells you how to boil an egg or what type of heat source to use. The same goes for distilling. How many house fires are caused because people put dinner on the stove and walk away and forget about it? On the other hand, when was the last time you fired up your still (regardless of the power source) and walked away and forgot about it? Safety is a primary concern of any common sense distiller. I love the quote from Forrest Gump; "Stupid is and Stupid does".

Tom
Hobby Distiller's Associaton

Tom, I never thought I would say this, but I agree with you completely. That said, this thread is stressing me out and I probably won't be revisiting it. I dare say - if some of the opinions expressed here prevail, we will never see decriminalization or legalization. "Poisoning our friends" - sounds like something out of prohibition era propaganda. No thanks, I'll err on the side of self-reliance and freedom.

[tcowdrey]

Well i'll be damned. When S-Cackalack actually agrees me ME, I know we are making progress. I also want to completely agree with him - this thread has gone far enough.

Whatever your thoughts on this topic, please go to http://www.hobbydistillersassociation.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow and join our community to get our hobby legalized and we'll see where we go from there. Hopefully we will be able to target not only the individual states, but the laws in Canada and elsewhere.

Thanks All.

Tom

[rad14701]

Over and over we go round and round about decriminalization and legalization... All we need is decriminalization and fall under the same rules as beer and wine - nothing more... When you start talking "legalization" you end up having more new laws to adhere to... We don't want or need that - at least I don't... All we need is for the US government to say they won't pursue and persecute us for enjoying the hobby we are already enjoying...

Perhaps some other countries don't see their government operating the way we see it here in the US... Give the government an inch and they'll take a mile... We don't need government oversight of our hobby, plain and simple...!!! When and if this happens here in the US other countries can use NZ and the US as models for decriminalization...

When prohibition was repealed here in the US they didn't dump a load of new laws on us, they simply decriminalized what they foolheartedly made a criminal act... tcowdrey and several other members see the difference between decriminalization and legalization... Let's all get on the same page on this... If someone wants more laws in their country that's fine, but not in my country...

[thecroweater]

100% spot on Rad, it is the same line i have been pushing for a few yrs now. Here as elsewhere there are those who believe if compromises are made the government will be more likely to listen. Firstly it is likely to back fire pointing out concerns and secondly in the unlikely event that ploy worked it will backfire with so much legislation most would prefer to stay outside the law. We had peanuts in Oz approaching MPs about licencing for the same reason and I went beserk about it, luckily even there reprosentitive had the sense to say dont complicate it

[rad14701]

Never leave an open opportunity for the government to bilk more money from the taxpayers... They will take advantage of any opportunity to close up a budget gap at taxpayer expense rather than getting a handle on spending... Let them get a toe in the door and sooner or later they'll stroll right in like they run the place... That's as "political" as I'll get on the subject...

[HDNB]

Drunk n smurf, i have visions of a meet and greet here one day and i don't want to alienate a neighbour... so in the spirit of opinions...i got one too.

I need more government involvement in my life like i need a bullet in the brain. You must be in a part of Alberta i have not seen yet.
I mean i understand the "they gave me a permit for a fee instead of throwing me in jail" ...is preferable to jail...but it's naive.
A government that will jail you for combining three legal ingredients into a legal product and then criminalize you for boiling and purifying that product into another legal product...because they don't get $13.72 / litre in tax...is insane!!!

The Canadian government is well on their way to licenced breeding and wrapping every baby in bubble wrap when they are born and whisking them away to be raised by professional, government sanctioned baby farms. These crazy bastards don't need any more encouragement to control (anything). Frankly they scare the shit outta me already.

i'm out.

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

Well, I sure opened a can of worms putting my 2 cents into this thread. Sorry about that. Never intended to get people irritated.

I guess I just look at things from a different mind set. I understand everyone's opinions and feelings that a restriction free decriminalization or legalization of the hobby would be the best option for you. But while I'd love to not have to answer to anyone personally for what I do on my own property 99% of the time, I certainly wouldn't want to live next door to certain people I know if they were given free reign to distill. In fact if I was their neighbour, and they bought a still, I would move out of fear for my own home being caught in the aftermath of their mistakes.

I'm the first one to complain that I should be allowed to do what I want on my own property. When I owned my own place, I was the guy who always had bylaw called because of my ideas of "yard art". And I always complained, and bitched about it being my property I ought to be able to put toilets around the fire pit if I want to! (They are perfect after all, ice and beer in the tank, gotta pee? Flip the lid, the melting ice from the tank will wash it all away lol)

I feel like a lot of people are looking at it one sighted, and having the same attitude I had with the bylaw man. It's my shit don't tell me what I can do with it. But you have to look at it from all sides. A rookie can throw together a shitty beer or wine, screw up every which way from Sunday. And it's not going to cause a fire, or an explosion. At worst he's gonna have one hell of a hangover. But we all know that one guy (admit it) that if he got ahold of a still you'd be scared for your own property cause you know full well he ain't going to do it safe no matter what anyone says.

In a perfect world everyone who buys/builds a still is going to find HD and read and research and do things safely. But the world ain't perfect. So I think I'm ok with my idiot neighbour not being able to get a permit to run a hobby still if he can't pass a basic still safety course.

Again, I'm sorry I opened this can of worms. I'll go back to watching these types of discussions play out instead of participating.

Chill guys it's all good.

[HDNB]

holy fuck. i wrote that crap ^^^ and then the wife turned on a movie called "The Giver" I'd say it was almost prescient.
if it wasn't totally prescient.

(sorry for makin' you pull out the dictionary again T-Pee)

[skow69]

Worms all over the place.

Drunken Smurf, you just can't save people from their own stupidity, no matter how many regulations and licenses you come up with. At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own actions (and you have to let them). Otherwise there is no end to it.

"Better get a license to walk that dog!"

"No, little girl, you can't sell lemonade on the sidewalk without a license."

And, really, how big a still is your neighbor running that's gonna blow up his house and the one next door?

[humbledore]

I've already put my thoughts in here. But the other day I was reading through the "tell me your mistakes" thread again. Holy crap there is some pretty hair-raising stuff in there in between the funny ones. It did give me some second thoughts on safety and what kind of things could get out of hand. Read that from the beginning. That should be required reading to everyone who joins this forum IMO. It'll scare you straight.

[Kegg_jam]

I don't about TP but I had to look up prescient.

[HDNB]

I don't about TP but I had to look up prescient.

I don't get to harass him much, so when i find a good word it's nice to poke the bear a bit.

HDNB (throwing a bit more bait out there)