Help out the little guy:   Quoting from article . . .

According to a 2005 study by Global Insight and the Parthenon Group, more than 40% of every beer sold in the United States is consumed by taxes. In fact, the total tax burden adds up to nearly 70% more than the average amount of tax paid in the U.S. on all other purchases.

After we move we're going to start brewing our own beer. The wife has already OK'ed a brewers hut.  I'm pretty sure that's legal it's the still out back I'm not so sure about. 

Quote from: ScottA on February 19, 2009, 08:12:22 PM

After we move we're going to start brewing our own beer. The wife has already OK'ed a brewers hut.  I'm pretty sure that's legal it's the still out back I'm not so sure about. 

Shhhh . . . It'll be our little secret.

Federal rules say a household with two adults can brew up to 200 gallons of wine and the same amount of beer each year. (A few states have their own laws prohibiting the practice.) You still can't brew spirits for private consumption. It is kosher, however, to own a still and process alcohol—but only if you're using the alcohol as fuel and you have a permit from the ATF.

I brew a little bit, our bottling this year was "tipped tree tipple" a barely green blend made while lightening a tree that fell over last fall. It took a week to stand back upright, we harvested over 100 gallons of apples and pressed about 25 gallons of cider. The pioneer's beverage of choice was hard cider, we added about a pound of sugar per gallon and made something closer to apple wine, the increased alcohol will hopefully help its keeping qualities. That however does not seem to be as big an issue as I had thought it might be.

A friend of ours owns the old town icehouse, a small below ground building that he converted to a wine/beer cellar for his serious brewing hobby. He learned something that I never would have thought about. CO2 is heavier than air and will collect in a small cellar like that. It is odorless and colorless. Luckily he passed out just as he got outside in the fresh air, which revived him momentarily. Things to think about when siting the brewhouse.

My million dollar idea is the drive along, sing along still. In order to distill alcohol you need to understand that alcohol boils at about 190 degrees and water boils around 212. So if you heat a batch of wine to above 190 but less than 212 it drives off the alcohol leaving the water behind. If we capture and condense that alcohol steam being driven off, it is pure alcohol. Now the thermostat in most cars is set very close to 190 and it is rare to boil over, we all know radiators make great condensers. Antifreeze here is up to $12/gallon, the heck with that. We should have a trunk full of corn squeezins that are circulated through the cooling system of the engine so that the car is distilling grain alcohol as it runs down the hiway.

I'm not sure if it'll get 100 MPG, you'd probably have to ask me the question again after 100 miles anyway.

There is the small matter of fuel costing about $2/gal and stumpwater going for around $30/gal but I've seen worse math  .

When my folks were in the Peace Corps the distiller with his distillery on a horse drawn cart would make his way through the villages. The people would bring out their homemade wine that wasn't the best and he would make brandy out of it. We chose to hobble that horse I guess  .