About Us
The Hobby Distillers Association was formed in 2013 by Brewhaus America and Rick Morris after the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) submitted formal requests for to many of the manufacturers and resellers of distillation equipment in the United States. The request was for a list of sales of distilling columns, boilers (kettles), and complete distillation systems.
The primary goal of the association was to work toward legalization of home hobby distilling by changing the federal laws in place making it illegal to distill at home for personal use. Our argument was that hobby distillers should be granted the same rights as hobby beer and wine makers. Using funds through membership fees the HDA was able to employ a lobbyist in Washington, DC, to advocate for us. We made great progress, meeting with Senators, Representatives, and even the head of the TTB and Secretary of the Treasury. Our push paid off, getting us included on a craft distilling bill. Unfortunately, after just a few months the funds had all been used, and with no other manufacturers or resellers assisting with funding the ongoing effort, the bulk of the cost was left for Brewhaus to fund if the fight was to continue. Brewhaus continued to fund the effort until the bill was left to die given what appeared to be pressure from the distilling industry. The bill would be reintroduced as an almost exact replica a couple of months later, but with our provision removed. That bill was quickly put to the floor and passed.
While not defunct, the Hobby Distillers Association did stop their lobbying effort due to a lack of funding. However, our luck changed in 2018 when the Competitive Enterprise Institute reached out about the possibility of a lawsuit against the federal government to legalize hobby distilling. This was very much a preliminary discussion about the possibility of moving forward. That discussion would progress slowly until 2020, when Covid brought the world to a stop. The discussion also came to a halt.
In 2022 the CEI reached back out, determined to move forward if the Hobby Distillers Association was also prepared to. We were still very much up for the fight, and teamed up with CEI, and in December of 2023 CEI filed a lawsuit against the federal government and the TTB, stating that the laws making hobby distilling illegal we unconstitutional.
On July 10, 2024, the presiding judge ruled that the relevant laws were unconstitutional, and sided with the Hobby Distillers Association and one other plaintiff. Despite the temporary stay on the ruling, and potential for the government to appeal, this thrust the HDA back into the limelight, with much more media attention than ever before. With the immense revived interest of people who wanted to distill as a hobby, it was time for the association to take the leadership role of advocating for federal and state legalization. We knew that this was just the first step of many, but we were ecstatic that the ruling was in our favor.
Given the expected growth and new role that the HDA was going to play, both in advocating for legalization throughout the United States, but also as a resource for hobby distillers, it was decided that it was time for the HDA to become its own entity. It was at that time that we filed the paperwork to become a 501(c) non-profit company,
We are now proud to be heading the hobby distilling movement in the US, and continuing to grow to become the primary resource for hobby distilling information.