How Highly Taxed is Your Beer?

[Suzanimal]

Politicians have always had a complicated relationship with alcoholic beverages. On the one hand, they really like skimming money from the stuff (at one point as much as 40 percent of federal revenues came from taxes on booze); on the other hand, they really hate that people take pleasure in drinking instead of...say...reading up on the great deeds of people who hold public office. Their go-to solution on both counts is to impose high taxes on beer, wine, and liquor so as to discourage their consumption and fund government services from their consumption.

No, that doesn't make sense. You've met these people before, right?

Anyway, the Tax Foundation compiled a handy map of beer taxes in these here United States. The map lists taxes per gallon of suds and ranks the states from highest (Tennessee at $1.29 per gallon) to lowest ($0.02 per gallon in Wyoming).

What the Tax Foundation map doesn't go into is the fact (shocking, I know) that with alcohol as with cigarettes and just about every other portable thing you can imagine, high taxes encourage smuggling from places where taxes are lower to places where they're higher.

In 2007, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission reported (PDF) that alcohol smuggling contributed to a "conservative annual estimate of $14 million dollars in loss to the state" in revenues. Indiana and Wisconsin (PDF) were fingered as the major sources. Despite the bulky nature of the stuff relative to liquor, that included "millions of out-of-state cans and bottles" of beer from just one smuggling ring.

After surveying the long and world-wide history of alcohol smuggling, the report recommended x-ray scanning trucks that enter Michigan, but didn't touch on lowering taxes (currently $0.20 per gallon in the wolverine state) to match the rates of its neighbors ($0.12 per gallon in Indiana and $0.06 per gallon in Wisconsin). I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that smuggling continues no matter how many x-ray machines the state has since purchased.

Update: Britain's Institute of Economic Affairs reported in 2012 that high alcohol taxes don't discourage drinking. "[T]his research shows that the amount of drink consumed in high tax countries is exactly the same as in low tax countries." Taxes just fuel black markets, including smuggling and illegal production.

...

http://reason.com/blog/2015/05/22/ho...d-is-your-beer

[presence]

It is your patriotic duty to brew.

[William Tell]

Interesting map, Suz. Mine is $0.81 lower than yours.

Go Wyoming btw! 2 cents away from the perfect beer tax rate!

[presence]

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[Suzanimal]

Apple juice + yeast = Gandhi?

Is that some kind of witchcraft? Didn't you post a photo of your voodo doll in another thread?
You don't happen to have a third nipple too?

9 X


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[luctor-et-emergo]

Damn. I don't get this though.

I calculated the beer tax here from euro/hectoliter to dollar/gallon and it's about $1.56.
Generally speaking, beer is cheaper here than what I remember from the US.

Btw, I have brewed beer a few times before. It's not difficult and it's a lot tastier than I expected.

[tangent4ronpaul]

MA is currently trying to raise their alcohol tax again

-t

[oyarde]

Mine is taxed high enough that I will start making my own at the next increase and probably just barter it and switch to drinking moonshine.The excise police arrested about 175 at the 500 race and issued about 150 court summons , for what , I have no idea.So , I will probably need to read the current laws and decide if I need more scalping knives. The fact that such worthless $#@!s are on the tax tick payroll is disturbing in itself. May they all rot in hell where they belong.

[edward222]

Apple juice + yeast = Gandhi?

Is that some kind of witchcraft? Didn't you post a photo of your voodo doll in another thread?
You don't happen to have a third nipple too?

LOL...
I really find his comment funny
hahahha

[presence]

Apple juice + yeast = Gandhi?

Is that some kind of witchcraft? Didn't you post a photo of your voodo doll in another thread?
You don't happen to have a third nipple too?

Ghandi is shown picking up the salt of the land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March
no but my wife does and hers made milk!

[Madison320]

It is your patriotic duty to brew.

I've been thinking about trying that again. Where do you siphon it to when it's ready? Bottles? A keg? I'd only try it again if I didn't have to bottle it. Too much of a PITA.

[presence]

Where do you siphon it to when it's ready?

For simple store bought and safale 04, I batch 4.5 gallons in a cornellius keg for 30 days (you could do this in gallon glass; but one packet of yeast works for about 5 gallons, so you'd have to divide it up). Then rack to gallon glass (plus a quart bottle) for 2 weeks. Then to rack to gallon glass another two weeks; total 60 days.

If I bottle, I leave it another month in gallons; and bottle to wine 750's w/ a floor corker (best $75 invest ever) @ 3/8 inch ullage; store cool and dark. I do all of that with an "autosiphon" to prevent contams; it helps to have a friend. I can bottle about 100 in a day if I'm doing multiple batches.

Otherwise, If I'm drinking "young" @ 60 days or any time after 60 days when I have nothing bottled, I just rack one gallon a week into pint masons and move them to the fridge which crashes the yeast. I fill the masons with 1/8 inch ullage and generally consume that same week; storing the pints in the fridge. This process I usually just siphon with a thin tube and my lips, no help needed. The remainder just stay under bubble trap until I'm ready to cold crash as needed. You could always do it this way and never have to bottle anything.

There's lots of other stuff you can do to it like add raisins, molasses, lime, other fruit juices, tannins, hops, acids, etc. You can also add simple sugar; the hotter you make it the longer it has to sit. I shoot for 8% and drinkable in 60 days. Peak flavor seems to be about 6-18 months for cider @ 8%.


I'm hoping for a nice apple harvest this year; my trees are all full of pea sized apple... 9 more days until "last freeze" in my zone. Weather outlook is good though.

[Zippyjuan]

I am sure it was not because of taxes but I bought a local craft beer at Petco Park (our Major League baseball stadium) during the Rolling Stones concert there (great show- first stop on current tour) and it was $14 for 22 ounces. Was curious just what a "hard root beer" tasted like (Mission Brewing Company). Yes- it tasted just like root beer with a bit of an after-taste. http://missionbrewery.com/hardrootbeer/?age=passed

[Henry Rogue]

Missouri and Wisconsin tied for 48th, might have something to do with the industry rivals. Can't seemed to locate # 49.

[Madison320]

For simple store bought and safale 04, I batch 4.5 gallons in a cornellius keg for 30 days. Then rack to gallon glass (plus a quart bottle) for 2 weeks. Then to rack to gallon glass another two weeks; total 60 days. If I bottle, I leave it another month in gallons; and bottle to wine 750's w/ a floor corker 3/8 ullage; store cool and dark. I do all of that with an "autosiphon" to prevent contams; it helps to have a friend. I can bottle about 100 in a day if I'm doing multiple batches. Otherwise, If I'm drinking "young" @ 60 days or any time after 60 days when I have nothing bottled, I just rack one gallon a week into pint masons and move them to the fridge which crashes the yeast. I fill the masons with 1/8 inch ullage and generally consume that same week. This process I usually just siphon with a thin tube and my lips, no help needed. The remainder just stay under bubble trap until I'm ready to cold crash as needed.

There's lots of other stuff you can do to it like add raisins, molasses, lime, other fruit juices, simple sugar etc.; the hotter you make it the longer it has to sit. I shoot for 8% and drinkable in 60 days. Peak flavor seems to be about 6-18 months for cider @ 8%.


I'm hoping for a nice apple harvest this year; my trees are all full of pea sized apple... 9 more days until "last freeze" in my zone. Weather outlook is good though.

There's no way to siphon it into a keg and drink from the keg? Would it go flat?

[oyarde]

Beer , wine and liquor taxes are immoral , and those that support such to pay for whatever immoral cause they support are the spawn of evil , murderous communists , thus lower than animals.

[presence]

There's no way to siphon it into a keg and drink from the keg? Would it go flat?

generally simple hard cider is already "flat" aka "still". Your concern is stale; oxygen is your enemy. controlling ullage (headspace) is key to preservation.

In "primary" I keep 1/2 gallon of head space in a 5 gallon container
In "secondary" I keep 5/8 inch of ullage under the airlock in 1 gallon glass
In wine bottles; 3/8"
In pint mason, cold crashed; 1/8" from the lid (touching the lid is also the enemy; it will pull bad flavors out of cork; rubber stoppers, ball lids, etc.)

If you really wanted it in a keg, and bubbling.... you could pressurize your keg wilth CO2... but that's more work and more equipment. I'm in this for cheap quality booze that I know the ingredients of and have to input as little work as possible.

I suppose there might be a way to pressurize a keg with a sugar spike at bottling; then let it make its own CO2. Hmm. Then you need a keg fridge,etc. so more cost considerations.

On a keep it simple stupid level, I drink a lot of pint masons cold crashed on average 90 days old. Its mostly still; mildly effervescent. 100% organic and cheap as apple juice.

Masons and wine bottles do not hold pressure; those are what I have the most of. I don't like the hassle of little beer bottles.

I just want a pint with dinner most nights; its all I ask

[Madison320]

generally simple hard cider is already "flat" aka "still". Your concern is stale; oxygen is your enemy. controlling ullage (headspace) is key to preservation.

In "primary" I keep 1/2 gallon of head space in a 5 gallon container
In "secondary" I keep 5/8 inch of ullage under the airlock in 1 gallon glass
In wine bottles; 3/8"
In pint mason, cold crashed; 1/8" from the lid (touching the lid is also the enemy; it will pull bad flavors out of cork; rubber stoppers, ball lids, etc.)

If you really wanted it in a keg, and bubbling.... you could pressurize your keg wilth CO2... but that's more work and more equipment. I'm in this for cheap quality booze that I know the ingredients of and have to input as little work as possible.

I suppose there might be a way to pressurize a keg with a sugar spike at bottling; then let it make its own CO2. Hmm. Then you need a keg fridge,etc. so more cost considerations.

On a keep it simple stupid level, I drink a lot of pint masons cold crashed on average 90 days old. Its mostly still; mildly effervescent. 100% organic and cheap as apple juice.

Masons and wine bottles do not hold pressure; those are what I have the most of. I don't like the hassle of little beer bottles.

I just want a pint with dinner most nights; its all I ask

My last attempt I used Grolsch bottles. I had beer all over the floor.