(The Center Square) – An Ohio man wants the federal government to stay out of his whiskey.
John Ream, of Newark, Ohio, sued the U.S. Department of Treasury on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio to end the federal ban on home distilling of spirit beverages.
The Buckeye Institute, who filed the lawsuit on Ream’s behalf, says the ban exceeds congressional authority under the U.S. Constitution.
“Mr. Ream wants to engage in a hobby that is as American as apple pie, and certainly a lot older – home distilling,” Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute and a partner in BakerHostetler’s Washington, D.C., office, who is a lead attorney on the case. “But if Mr. Ream undertakes this hobby, he would be subject to a felony conviction, $10,000 in fines and five years in prison. Now that calls for a stiff drink.”
Before they were married, Ream’s wife Kristin gave him a home brewing kit. The Reams eventually opened Trek Brewing Co. in Newark in 2017. The business continues to grow, and Ream wants to try making his alcohol at home for his consumption.
“There is an old Irish proverb, ‘What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for,’” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, who is also a lead attorney on the case. “Fortunately, for Mr. Ream and other would-be home distillers, there is a simple cure for the ban on home distilling that exceeds congressional authority. It is our beloved U.S. Constitution, which grants to Congress only limited and enumerated powers.”
