A Toast to Newly Legalized Home Distilleries, Backyard Moonshining, Basement Booze-Making and Garage Alchemy

By Robert Phillips
Deputy District Attorney (ret.)

Good news for all you “alcohol connoisseurs” who have always wanted to conjure up your own favorite home brew in your bathtub or, perhaps, your backyard distillery. You no longer have to count on a reenactment of “Deliverance” through the back 40 acres of your property. A case just came down making it legal for you to set up your own distillery despite federal laws that have, until now, been assumed to be to the contrary. The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided this issue in McNutt v. United States Department of Justice (5th Cir. Apr. 10, 2026) F.4th (2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 10423).

While out of the federal Fifth Circuit, covering only Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the reasoning in this new case is sound enough to where if tested, the Ninth Circuit (western United States, including California) would likely follow suit. The same issue is similarly pending before the Sixth Circuit (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee), in Ream vs. DOT, No. 25-3259, (6th Cir. Apr. 8, 2025), Dkt. No. 1. No. 24-10760, where 1,300 members of a home distillery organization, many of whom donated time and money to advance the cause of legalizing their hobby, have challenged the federal statutes that have for years been used to prevent and punish such activities.

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