Massachusetts

Updated: 9/1995

Status: Permitted

Statute

Massachusetts law Part I, Title XX, Chapter 138, § 3 permits the manufacture or storage of alcoholic beverages by a person for his own private use.

Discussion

§ 3 is a concise provision enabling the production of alcoholic beverages for private use. “Alcoholic beverages” is defined as any liquid intended for human consumption as a beverage and containing one half of one per cent or more of alcohol by volume at sixty degrees Fahrenheit.

Special Provisions

N/A

State Alcohol Beverage Control Agency

• Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission
• 239 Causeway Street
• Boston, MA 02114
• Phone: 617.727.3040
• Fax: 617.727.1258

Applicable Statutory Material

§ 1. Definitions
The following words as used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, shall have the following meanings:–

“Alcohol”, all alcohol other than denatured alcohol or alcohol described in section three hundred and three A of chapter ninety-four.

“Alcoholic beverages”, any liquid intended for human consumption as a beverage and containing one half of one per cent or more of alcohol by volume at sixty degrees Fahrenheit.

§ 3. Manufacture and storage of alcoholic beverages for private use

This chapter shall not apply to the manufacture or storage of alcoholic beverages by a person for his own private use or to sales of cider at wholesale by the original makers thereof, or to sales of cider by farmers, not to be drunk on the premises, in quantities not exceeding in the aggregate the product of apples raised by them in the season of, or next preceding, such sales, or to sales of cider in any quantity by such farmers not to be drunk on the premises if such cider does not contain more than three per cent of alcohol by weight at sixty degrees Fahrenheit; nor shall this chapter apply to sales of cider by the original makers thereof other than such makers and farmers selling not to be drunk on the premises as aforesaid, if the cider does not contain more than three per cent alcohol as aforesaid, not to be drunk on the premises as aforesaid.

Note: The information presented here is to the best of our knowledge and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice specific to the laws of your state.