HDA Website is BACK!

It has been a few years since we lost our website, but we never stopped fighting!

We had a lot going on between the HDA and our fight for legalization of home hobby distilling and running Brewhaus (along with our other businesses), and missed renewing our domain.  Almost as soon as the domain became available someone grabbed it and pointed it toward their website, apparently looking to capitalize on the popularity of the domain and number of followers and members we had.  Given the loss of interest after the bill that we were on was left to die, never getting to the House or Senate floor, we decided that we would not register a new domain and relaunch the website.

Although we did not launch a new Hobby Distiller's Association website, that did not mean that we were not still trying to push for legalization.  We started talking to the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, and it looked like they were interested in taking up the fight with us.  They did some research to see what angles were open to us, but this was in 2019.  We all know what happened then… 2020 hit and the world pretty much stopped.  As things calmed we restarted our discussion with CEI, and they got back to looking at ways to push this through.  Their research showed that, in their opinion, Congress had overstepped with some legislation, and the laws pertaining to distilling at home were unconstitutional.  They proposed we sue the Federal Government and the TTB in the hopes that a judge would agree, and invalidate those laws.  In short, this would wipe the laws making hobby distilling illegal.

While this was obviously a potential huge leap forward in HDA activity, much of what was being done between the HDA and CEI needed to be held close to the chest.  We were, after all, suing the government.  Given that we could not share much of what was happening, we did not feel the need to relaunch the website.  In hind site, that was probably a good time to get the website moving again, but as slowly as things seemed to be moving we honestly did not give it much thought.

Well, you likely now know the results of our lawsuit- WE WON!  While, as of today, we do not know if the Department of Justice will appeal the decision or not, we are obviously ecstatic.  We are also cautiously optimistic that, if the government does appeal, that the ruling will stand.  We are energized, and ready to keep pushing this fight.  At the moment, CEI has also expressed their interest in following this through, all the way to the Supreme Court, if that is what it takes.

So, with this now fully out in the open, it is definitely time for us to once again take on a leadership role in this fight, and start preparing for the next steps.  So, with that said, let's pull together, and make it possible to distill at home as a hobby legally.