Wyoming mechanic Geno Stecks turned his dining room into what he calls his "shining room" two years ago, rigging a power drill to a mixing bowl to make his own "coffee-flavored shine." The hobby taught him new skills and gave him a product to share with neighbors. It is also, under federal law, a crime.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced this month it will reconsider an 1868 law banning home distilling, raising hopes among hobbyists that spirits could eventually be treated the same as beer and wine, both legal to brew at home nationwide. Currently, distilling alcohol at home carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
A law born of tax collection, not safety
Plaintiffs argue Congress overstepped its authority by restricting distilling purely for tax-collection purposes during the Reconstruction era. "The particular law in question here is both absurd and unconstitutional," said Robert Alt, a lawyer representing the challengers, noting that George Washington himself distilled spirits at home. Lower courts have split on the question, with one finding the nearly 160-year-old ban unconstitutional and another upholding it. The Supreme Court will hear the case early next year, with a ruling possible by summer 2027.
From Prohibition to NASCAR
Historian Daniel Pierce told the BBC that home distilling was first criminalized to ensure producers paid taxes on their output, a burden small farmers distilling on the side could rarely absorb the way larger operations could. Prohibition later created an entirely illegal distilling economy, whose high-speed bootlegger cars gave rise to NASCAR. Rick Morris, founder of the Hobby Distillers Association and one of the plaintiffs, said the law never made sense to him as a home beer and wine brewer: "I could make beer, I could make wine, both perfectly legally … and it was frustrating that I couldn't take what I had already legally made and do one more step." Not everyone is cheering the case on — the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. warns that distillation carries real risks of explosion, fire and injury outside a professional setting.