If you search for "home still" on Amazon, you will see a wide variety of contraptions designed to separate and concentrate a liquid mixture's most volatile components. Many of them are explicitly advertised as appliances designed to produce alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, brandy, gin, and vodka. But if you bought one of those products with the intent to use it for that purpose, you would be committing a federal felony.
The federal ban on home production of distilled spirits has been on the books since 1868, when Congress enacted it as part of a broader statute aimed at collecting taxes on booze. But two recent federal appeals court decisions raise the possibility that DIY distillers one day will no longer have to worry about this antiquated, widely flouted, and haphazardly enforced prohibition.
