lFederal law allows home production of wine and beer for personal use, 100 gallons per calendar year per adult.

lUtah law defines "manufacture" to include personal use. It states that no one can manufacture an alcoholic beverage without a license issued by the commission. The licensing fee is $3,250, plus an application fee of $250 and a $10,000 surety bond.

lCatch-22: However, home producers do not qualify for this license. Instead, they are referred to federal law, which does not issue licenses for home production because the practice is allowed without a license. Therefore, Utah's home brewers are caught in a Catch-22, required to have a license that they cannot obtain.

-Source: Earl Dorius, DABC

SOUTH SALT LAKE - City officials here are drafting an alcohol ordinance that, among other things, bans home-brewing.

Why bother. Utah already forbids homemade beer and wine - sort of - even though the prohibition is widely ignored.

"Under state law, nothing precludes the sale of home-brewing and wine-making equipment," said Earl Dorius, regulatory director of Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC). "But once the equipment is put to use, there's a technical violation of the law. We don't have a good answer for you if you want to do home production."

A few businesses in and near South Salt Lake sell home-brewing paraphernalia.

"Our business is thriving," said Jamie Burnham, manager of the Beer Nut, 1200 S. State St., which has been open for more than a decade. "More and more people have become interested in the hobby. You can't buy what you can make, and the creative nature of what you can brew at home is what intrigues people."

South Salt Lake's aim in reworking its ordinance is to mirror state law.

"We haven't had any problems with home-brewing in our city, but under state law it is illegal and we just wanted to make that clear," said South Salt Lake City Attorney David Carlson.

Carlson said he assumes most Utah cities ban home-brewing but just don't enforce that part of the law.

"It's not something South Salt Lake intends to police," he said. "There's no plan to hunt for people who are home-brewing."

But it would give the city extra muscle if serious situations cropped up related to the practice.

"I don't care what people do in their own homes as long as it doesn't spill out into the public," Mayor Wes Losser said. "But if there were problems related to home-brewing, such as people going blind or a small riot breaking out, we have to think in extremes to cover all the bases."

In neighboring Murray, city officials defer to state law on home-brewing.

"We don't have an ordinance dealing directly with this," City Attorney Frank Nakamura said. "We haven't had any complaints about home-brewing, and it would be very difficult to enforce."

The Legislature's last attempt to legalize home-brewing - a pastime that has grown in popularity in Utah and across the nation - died in committee seven years ago.

"Our department is certainly aware of the standoff," DABC's Dorius said of the circular logic in state law that technically bans home-brewing. "The way the law reads, it's manufacturing without a license."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com