Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Manchestershine wrote:

warramungas wrote:

Manchestershine wrote:
Has anyone on the Aussidistiller site ever tried lobbying government for changes?

:))
Been done to death bud.

Perhaps a bit more detail would help, did you contact the Minister directly? What was your angle? Every State Government has a small business policy committee did they have input into your lobbying? Did you buy any tables at the target politicians annual lunch? How much money have you spent on donations to election campaigns?

Nobody is going to lobby the government to legalize an illegal activity. The money at stake is huge (not to mention the payoffs, sorry, political contributions).
Lobbying to have it legalized needs to be done by legal distillers or similar willing to do so but why on earth would they? No offence intended to the legal distillers amongst our ranks but its just not worth their time or effort to reduce the amount of money they might make.
For you and me to do it, well I'm no Kerry packer but maybe you are, and I sure can't afford to be telling people I commit an illegal activity in the public arena.
If you've got a few million to spare and buy some politicians, damnit, I mean make some contributions, then by all means but as long as they leave us alone and its not worth their while to chase me I wont be sticking my neck out to have it chopped off.

If you've got enough money to buy the lobbying power you could make assault rifles compulsory in every home and school shootings a fun weekday activity for students. Just ask the NRA.

Sam. wrote:Mancherstershine you are saying what a lot of people have said before you and got nowhere.

Maybe with this site you might want to consider becoming a site donor and posting your feelings in a more appropriate setting?

Sam, I understand your message. Better people have tried although you won't elaborate on what they tried, and, I should shut up on the issue unless I pay to have an opinion. Ok message received, it's zip from me.

Manchestershine wrote:Sam, I understand your message. Better people have tried although you won't elaborate on what they tried, and, I should shut up on the issue unless I pay to have an opinion. Ok message received, it's zip from me.

How disrespectful :violence-smack:

Not what Sam was saying bud. There's a pretty good discuss on it in the donors area (I think I recall).
Maybe cool it a little as it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to effect any change doing the things you're suggesting. Change in this country is not going to happen unless it wins votes or is worth wads of cash in the hand for the political parties. This offers neither.
Not trying to sound like an anarchist but I'm too old to sugar coat the reality of political change in this country.
If you want to try mate then by all means go for it! We'll be happy for you to try.

:text-+1:

There is a thread in the site donors area where a fair bit of discussion has gone on. It was moved there because it was getting nowhere unfortunately. We all want to see this hobby legalised but we just need to be careful how we do it. It could quite easily turn around and bite us and make it harder for us. We are under the radar and if we behave ourselves and do all the right things in regards to safety and not selling no one seems to have any problems.

Minpac - as you know, obscuration can occur when making gin because of the botanicals added which then affects the alcohol concentration.
The ATO will accept a few methods to overcome obscuration. They suggested:
1) Thorpe's condensor;
2) gas chromatography;
3) near infra-red spectrometry;
4) distillation followed by the gravimetric measurement of the distillate or by measurement in a density meter; or
5) any other method that consistently produces a similar result demonstrated by a documented testing process.
I elected (1) which uses a small laboratory still to remove any obscurants and results in an alcohol/water solution which I can then use an alcoholmeter to measure
eg:
a) Take a sample of 150ml before the dispensing stage of the final product into bottles. Add an equal amount of distilled water. This will be distilled via a small laboratory (Thorpe’s/Inland revenue condenser) still until the volume in the receiving vessel equals 150ml.
b) If the volume of alcohol/water in the receiving vessel is slightly less than 150ml add sufficient distilled water to bring the total volume up to 150ml.
c) At this stage a reading will be taken with the alcoholmeter. As the alcohol must be tested at 20 degrees Celsius, you can either place the sample in a water bath and bring the temperature of the sample to 20 degrees Celsius or measure the temperature and then convert the alcoholmeter reading and temperature using a conversion table.

I'd always wondered about the thorpes condenser. I didn't realise you just distilled until a set volume. Very cool. Do you need to prove that the measurements you are taking are correct? Ie. Does the cylinder you measure into have to be certified for volume?

Manchestershine wrote:

bluc wrote:I havn't heard of anyone doing it to this extent not like it is in america where they have a permanent group of people continually lobbying..

Bluc, I've got news for you it's not just America. Go for a drive around Canberra note the names on the buildings eg. Why would Boeing have a multi storey building in Canberra when they don't build anything in Canberra? There are countless companies and lobbyist working all day everyday to have the concerns of their industries heard.

I live and work in Canberra and in another life had plenty to do with lobbyists here. I have put together papers on this but unfortunately do not have the time to take it further. More importantly, I have been told by some people high up "it won't happen'. The path is long and expensive.

As a side note, Boeing is here in it's IT Outsource iteration (so is Lockheed Martin) and has absolutely zero to do with lobbying. ;-)