And Now for Something Completely Different

And now for something completely different: A report on my Law of Distilled Spirits field trip last week.

As I’ve occasionally mentioned, I teach a course called Law of Distilled Spirits. When I started teaching it 5 or 6 years ago, I was the only one doing so and I believe that I still am. I started at the behest of several former students who own and/or operate distilleries, and a couple who practice law in the area. They explained that it was a whole field that most lawyers knew nothing about, and that they thought I’d be a good one to teach it, since it’s a heavily regulated industry, I already teach Administrative Law, and, of course, “you teach a lot of weird courses already.”

Well I do teach or have taught space law, firearms law, national security law, and Internet law, as well as, long ago, International Business Transactions, so there’s some truth to that. I told them I’d have to lean on them as, aside from a decade or so of homebrewing, my knowledge of alcoholic beverages is strictly on the consumer, not the producer, side. Well, that’s not so true anymore.

I do, however, know more now. The course covers the history (a bit), production (basics of distilling, mostly), and regulation of alcoholic beverages. I cover regulation at the federal level (mostly via the Tax and Trade Bureau of the Department of the Treasury, better known as the TTB, though there’s some involvement of the FDA, the Patent and Trademark Office, etc.), at the state level, through state Alcoholic Beverage Commissions or the like, and at the local area in terms of zoning, fire codes, and such. In all cases, it’s basically from the viewpoint of a producer.