Ex-engineer challenging 150-year-old homeade liquor ban hopes Supreme Court will hear his case

Americans can brew beer in their kitchens and make wine at home, but just try making a bottle of whiskey or gin — and people can run afoul of a federal law that dates back more than 150 years.That distinction caught the attention of Ohio resident John Ream, a former aerospace engineer and home-brewing enthusiast who wants to distill small quantities of spirits at home for himself and his wife.“It is perfectly legal to make beer at home or to make wine at home, but if you make even a single ounce of distilled spirits at home, it is a federal felony,” Robert Alt, an attorney representing Ream, told Fox News Digital.Ream’s interest in making his own drinks began when his then-fiancée, now wife, Kristin, gave him a home-brewing kit.“Brewing was the perfect combination of art and science, and my engineering brain just totally latched onto it,” Ream told the Buckeye Institute, an Ohio-based think tank where Alt serves as president and CEO.After years of experimenting with brewing, Ream and his wife opened Trek Brewing Company in Newark, Ohio.But when Ream became interested in experimenting with distilled spirits at home, he encountered a very different set of rules.Federal law allows qualifying home production of beer and wine for personal or family use — but distilled spirits cannot legally be produced at home.Federal violations can carry significant fines and prison time.The debate has also attracted attention within the home-brewing community. The American Homebrewers Association, a trade group based in Boulder, Colorado, said this year that it does not have an official position on legalizing home distilling.

It noted that some of its members distill at home and emphasized education and safety around beverage-making hobbies.Why federal law treats distilled spirits differently from beer and wine has roots stretching back more than two centuries.The federal government began taxing distilled spirits in 1791, a levy that helped spark the Whiskey Rebellion ...