New brands of alcohol are springing up across the world, bringing traditional spirits to unlikely places. High-quality whiskeys are coming out of Asia and Scandinavia, while the traditional Poland versus Russia wodka/vodka war has spurred on production of the old Soviet staple in the rest of Europe and North America.
The entrance of Mackmyra Whisky from Sweden and Amrut from India onto the scene mirrors the early growth of microbreweries across North America. Established names like Mill Street and Steam Whistle both began in the early 2000s as relatively small facilities. Now they are staples for any beer drinker in Ontario. Microbreweries — attempting to challenge the dominance of name brands such as Molson and Labatt — found their success by making unorthodox choices in their production and by creating more varied and flavourful beers, thus appealing to the experimental side of Canadians who were not content with the bland taste of your average beer. Microbreweries also appealed to the localist thinking of Canadians who had already begun a transition to the slow foods movement for the rest of their palate, pushing for quality meat, dairy and produce from local producers.
[pullquote]Much of the anti-home distilling sentiment comes from skewed perceptions of prohibition-era bootleggers working with exploding stills in their basements.[/pullquote]
Ultimately, microbreweries would not have succeeded if they had not been making quality products. One of the reasons they were able to do so was that the homebrewing of beer for personal consumption is legal without a permit in North America. Would-be brewmasters were able to experiment with all aspects of the brewing process in their own homes without having to shell out large amounts of money for government licences. They were able to find their own unique flavours and processes before transitioning to selling the product on the market.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for spirits. While making beer and wine in your house is legal without a permit, it is illegal in Ontario to distill alcohol. This is a problem not only for Ontario distillers but for all consumers of alcohol. Without the freedom to experiment in the comfort and safety of one’s home, it is almost impossible to break into the market with new products. The newest brand of distilled alcohol in Canada is Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head vodka — a quality spirit to be sure — but most alcohol artisans do not have the net worth of Ghostbusters to fund their foray into distilling. Instead, consumers are trapped with corporate name brands that offer little difference in quality or taste and no experimentation.
If homebrewing and wine-making are legal, then why is there not a push to make home distilling legal as well? The primary reason is that many people are scared of home. Much of the anti-home distilling sentiment comes from skewed perceptions of prohibition-era bootleggers working with exploding stills in their basements. These gangsters provided low quality booze to unsuspecting consumers, which resulted in poisoning and blindness. However, the historic link between bathtub gin and blindness was not the result of home distilling, but rather of overt government action. In an attempt to discourage gangsters from stealing and reselling industrial alcohol, the US government required that all industrial alcohol be poisoned with methanol. Because mobsters used this in their product and were not particularly concerned with the quality, they took half measures to ensure the methanol was removed. Since it often was not, consumption resulted in blindness and death. This link worked its way into the collective consciousness of post-prohibition North America and has effectively damaged the image of home distilling.
In reality, if home distilling were legal, such risks would be minimal. Like homebrewing and wine-making, selling the product would be prohibited without a license, limiting tasting and consumption to the distiller until they could pass the stringent health and safety controls required to sell their product.
If we want to expand the realm of local artisan production from beer, wine, and food to all aspects of our diet, then the best way to move forward is to legalize home distilling and allow the creative energies of small producers to free us from the limitations of corporate name brands.
