How can I legally sell home-made liquor (lemoncello)?

This a question for the state you live in and the federal government. You need to have a lawyer lead the way, one that has done this before. There are taxes and regulations that have to be collected and followed.

Yeah, like @Tropical_Willie said. Call your state’s liquor control board but I’m thinking the answer is no. This is what you have to do to sell home-made wine. It’s pretty much illegal or prohibitively burdensome, at least, for someone to operation a home distillery. And if you are making the Limoncella using a branded product manufactured by someone else then there will probably be some issues they. You can always use the “magic tree stump” method that the moonshiners and my great uncle, who made and sold wine during Prohibition, used in the part of West Virginia where my dad grew up. You went into the woods and put your money down on the “magic tree stump,” turned your back for a minute or two and when you turned back again a bottle of whiskey had magically appeared, right there, right where your money used to be! Amazing! :-)

I think that if you purchase legal alcohol to make it (which you probably will) then you can take advantage of a loophole by selling it as “preserved fruit.” This is what’s done with selling brandied peaches for instance. The point is that taxes will have already been paid on the alcohol portion of the limoncello. You will still have to obey alcohol resale laws though.

You need to start with the Alcohol Beverage Control for your state. In addition to state laws governing alcohol, there are federal laws, excise taxes and food manufacturing standards and practices that need to be adhered to. It is relatively expensive to get into the business of manufacturing liquor.

Many states have programs to convert tobacco base farms into vineyards, so there is probably shortcuts to the information portion of this out there.

The short answer is yes, you definitely can. But as is so often the case, the Devil is in the details. Here are a list of the Federal statutes you must read, digest and understand, then comply with. Part of this is amined at ensuring you pay the necessary taxes but a good deal of it is also of very practical value, making sure that libations offered for consumers aren’t condensed in car radiators with lead solder and so forth. Compliance isn’t cheao, but if you have some loyal customers, it can be a lucrative business once you are set up and licensed. You don’t mention what state you are in, but by all means you need to see what added burden compliance with their quality and tax laws imposes. For a more detailed answer. send one bottle of lemoncello. With that, ET can phone home.

First, I have to sample it and see if it’s sponge-worthy. Send me some and I’ll let you know if you should even bother looking into commercializing it. Everyone thinks they make a wicked lemoncello, when in fact some can’t even make a decent lemon fiddle.

seazen – send me your contact info and I will send you the best you have ever tasted. Authentic Sicilian recipe.
Sandygib
Looking for legal means to produce and sell from home test kitchen, but I would look into commercialization.

Sandy – I beg to differ – mine is the best. Aside from selling it legally – does anyone know if there are any contests out there where we can show off our limoncello?