Legal Issues

Today, amateur distillation is permitted in many countries, such as Italy. Even in new democratic countries like Russia and Ukraine, amateur distillation for personal use is permitted. In some countries one needs a license or permit or must pay a small fee. For readers in those countries, this book is simply a handbook describing in detail how to ferment mash, build and operate a fractional distillation system for the production of premium ethyl alcohol and how to make fine liquor and liqueurs from this alcohol.

In many countries amateur distillation for personal consumption is not permitted. Those laws are mostly very old, having originated at a time when people could not handle alcohol and started drinking until there was no more. In our modern society with education, drivers license etc., this is no longer a problem.

Those laws also protected the liquor industry from competition - and are still doing so. Winemaking and beer-making laws have been updated: it is legal in most countries to ferment your own wine at home. But it is illegal in those countries to distill your own legally brewed wine! It is the same legally brewed alcohol. Distillation does not produce alcohol - it separates it.

When the politicians in those countries find that out, the laws will change. In some countries it will probably take time, like in Sweden and Denmark. There it took the politicians over 100 years of investigation to find out that they should build a bridge between Sweden and Denmark (it will open July 2000). If you have such slow politicians, why not try to push them a little, like on the site https://www.angelfire.com/co/frisprit/hembranningsajt.html
in Sweden?

Freedom of the press
This book is permitted to be read and sold in democratic countries that have freedom of the press. It must be pointed out that the contents of this book do not comprise an invitation to put into practice anything that is unlawful in the country of the reader. The reader is urged to follow the current laws that apply where he or she lives.

It is obvious
It should be obvious that this book is not a dare nor a challenge for the reader to engage in distillation of spirits if it is considered a unlawful offense by the legal administration of the locale in which he or she resides. Surely there is no one who seriously believes that?

Home distillation is a current topic of discussion in many countries, and such knowledge is a light burden. This book imparts knowledge that makes intelligent discussion even more pleasant.