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Calling all Texans!
Nov
As many of you know, The Hobby Distillers Association is based in Texas. That is where this all began, with Brewhaus and Rick Morris founding the association back in 2014. In the 10 years since we have worked to legalize home hobby distilling at the federal level. Although we did work on state legalization, as well, our focus was on federal legalization in the early days of the HDA.
That has changed. You may have seen our previous posts about the HDA’s lawsuit against the government. If you have not been keeping up with that you can find several blog posts that we have following the lawsuit and ruling. As you will see in our previous posts, we also started putting more energy towards legalizing hobby distilling for our state.
With the election behind us it is time to make a very strong push if we want to see any chance of legalizing hobby distilling in Texas in the next two years. As with many states, the Texas legislature runs a full session for only six months after an election. Once that time is up then only a special session called by the governor brings them back into session. That means the time is NOW to contact your representatives! Ask for a meeting, or at the very least, let them know that you want hobby distilling legalized here in our great state of Texas. There are already several states that have legalized hobby distilling in the past few years- let’s make Texas the next to do so!
If you arrange a meeting with your representative and would like an information pack to take with you just let us know. We have compiled safety information, a list of states that have legalized hobby distilling, and a few of those states bills as examples.
Now is the time, Texas! Let’s get this done!
Good luck, Texas! It is legal in Alaska , but one can only distill as much as federally allowed, which is zero without a permit. Does that mean Alaska has no state enforcement model, or? Can you tell us what this means exactly in term of application of law?
As we are not lawyers we cannot give any legal advice. However, if you obtain a permit from the TTB then you will be in line with the federal laws. You will have to pay the excise tax (currently $14.50 per proof gallon), but that is a small price to pay for being able to distill legally and stay within the law. Hopefully, we will receive equal status with home brewing and winemaking in the near future, and even the federal permitting requirement will disappear.
It would be extremely helpful to publish a suggested letter or at least some talking points. Specifically, it would be helpful to know the key points in the lawsuit against the feds and the key points the judge used in deciding to allow distilling. The Texas legislature meets starting in January 2025 so time is of the essence.
We do have a packet that we can e-mail to anyone meeting with their Texas representative, but it is not something that we feel we should have for download.
For the federal case, the ruling does specify the reasons that Judge Pittman came to his decision, and the precedents he used. Basically, as an HDA member a person can now obtain a Distilled Spirits Plant permit regardless of the location of the DSP, providing they meet all other criteria required for the permit (correct locks, etc.). This is only for HDA members as the HDA is the plaintiff in the lawsuit. The law was not fundamentally changed to allow for ‘home distilling’. One must still file the correct paperwork and pay the excise tax on what is produced, however, the tax is minimal, and it does offer an avenue to distill at home as a hobby (the product does not need to be for sale). State laws are still in place in several states that do not allow for hobby distilling, so we are working on that.
Following closely. I just got into wine making & have been interested in exploring other things including distilling.