Moonshine is high-proof liquor traditionally made or distributed illegally, its name drawn from the practice of distilling it at night to avoid detection by authorities. Its production and sale outside licensed, taxed channels have long made it a target of enforcement wherever alcohol production is regulated. In the twenty-first century, commercial distilleries have also adopted the moonshine name for their own legally produced spirits, trading on its outlaw reputation rather than continuing the illegal practice itself.
Facts
Classification CodeHome distilling has been banned under United States federal law since 1868, a ban originally imposed in part to prevent tax avoidance on the sale of homemade moonshine 1 Jurisdiction VariationSix United States states allow personal production of moonshine for personal consumption: Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Hampshire, each under its own volume limit 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Moonshine (Wikipedia)
Legal status section
A federal ban on home distilling was put in place during the Reconstruction era in 1868 in part to prevent tax avoidance on the sales of homebrew moonshine.
Legal status section, state table
There are six states that allow the production of moonshine for personal consumption (Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Hampshire).
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