CHAPTER IX.

BREWERS AND DEALERS IN MALT LIQUORS.

REGULATIONS FOR DEALERS IN FERMENTED OR MALT LIQUORS.

(The term "malt liquors" embraces beer, ale, porter, weiss beer.)

Every person who sells or offers for sale malt liquors in quantities of not less than five gallons at any time, but who does not deal in spirituous liquors at wholesale, shall be regarded as a wholesale dealer in malt liquors.

Every person who sells or offers for sale malt liquors in less quantities than five gallons at one time, but who does not deal in spirituous liquors, shall be regarded as a retail dealer in malt liquors.

Every dealer in fermented or malt liquors must, before commencing business, pay the special tax.

The special tax stamp should always be posted up in a conspicuous place.

It is important for the dealer to carefully inspect every package of fermented liquors which he receives on his premises, and note,

A. That the package is legally stamped.

B. That the stamp is properly canceled.

C. That the package has been branded by the brewer as the law requires.

D. That the stamp is always destroyed when the package is put on tap.

The stamp must be fixed upon the spigot-hole in the head of the package, and the spigot or the air faucet must in all cases be driven through the stamp in such a manner

as to effectually destroy such stamp when a package is put on draught.

Imported malt liquors are required to be stamped before they are withdrawn from the bonded warehouse, and said stamp must be destroyed when the package is emptied.

A brewer is not required to pay special tax as dealer in malt liquors, by reason of selling in the original stamped package, whether at the place of manufacture or elsewhere, malt liquors manufactured by himself.

Brewers who, on the brewery premises, or at any other place, sell fermented liquors manufactured by themselves or others, in quantities less than five gallons, except in the original stamped eighth-barrel package of their own manufacture, will be required to pay the special tax of retail dealers in malt liquor.

The brewer is required by law to put upon each package containing malt liquor a certain brand, and no person other than the owner is permitted to remove or deface such brand intentionally, without exposure to a penalty of fifty dollars for each package.

All the laws and regulations relating to beer also apply to weiss beer, and every person selling weiss beer must pay special tax as dealer in malt liquors.

The commissioner of internal revenue forbids the use of two stamps of the same denomination to one package of a higher denomination; as, for instance, two quarter-barrel stamps to a half-barrel package, except it be a package larger than a hogshead.

Fermented liquors may be exported in original packages with an allowance for drawback of all taxes which have been paid. Special provision has also been made for

its exportation in bottles, with allowance for drawback of tax, when bottled from stamped packages.

Beer bottles which were exported, filled with beer of American manufacture, may be reimported empty, free from duty, provided at the time and place of exportation "a declaration is made of the intent to return the bottles empty."

Brewers, as well as all others who bottle malt liquors for sale, are liable as malt liquor dealers, and are required to pay special tax as wholesale or retail malt liquor dealers, according to the quantity sold at one time.

Stamps affixed to packages containing malt liquors are canceled by imprinting or writing thereon the name of the person, firm or corporation by whom such liquor was made, or the initial letters of such name, and the date of such cancelation.

Every brewer is required to brand every package containing malt liquors made by him, with his name and the place of manufacture.

Many decisions under the head of "Wholesale and Retail Liquor Dealers" apply also to dealers in malt liquors.

BEER STAMPS.

The purchase of stamps by a brewer does not technically pay the tax on his production; the tax is paid when he attaches the stamp to the barrel for the purpose of putting the product on the market.

Although the law uses the word sale as applicable to the delivery and transfer of stamps, they do not thereby become a commodity of merchandise in the market.

The collector in accepting drafts in payment of tax acts without the authority of law and does not bind the United States. The collector's agency in the sale of stamps is limited to the sale of stock on hand, but does not confer the right to sell for a future delivery.

THE REVENUE TAX ON HOP BEER, ROOT BEER AND ALE.—

Fermented liquor brewed from hops, yeast, molasses, salt and eggs no malt in it-is subject to the tax on fermented liquors made from malt, or from a substitute for malt, if the quantity of molasses used is sufficiently large to make such beer a similar fermented liquor to weiss beer, or any stronger fermented liquor.

If the beverage is similar in taste and appearance to malt liquor, the person who manufactures it is required to give bond and pay special tax as a brewer, even though the quantity of alcohol developed in it by fermentation (as in weiss beer) is so small that it can hardly be regarded as intoxicating.

Root beer, ginger ale, etc., not being similar fermented liquors to any malt liquors contemplated by section 3339, Revised Statutes, are not subject to tax under that section, and, therefore, special tax need not be paid for their manufacture and sale.

Treasury Decision, June 28, 1897.

ONE WHO MAKES "MALTINA" IS A BREWER.

One who buys tax-paid beer and fills it into bottles from the stamped package, filling each bottle about one-third full, then to each bottle adds two parts carbonated water and burnt sugar to the one part of beer, adding the mixture from bottles prepared for that purpose, then sets the bottles aside for a few days, when they are ready for use, is held to be a brewer within the meaning of the first subdivision of Section 3244 of Revised Statutes.

Commissioner's Letter, October 1, 1897.

MALT WINE.—

A wine-like product, called malt wine, contained 15.35 per cent of alcohol by volume and 12.42 per cent by weight, and 14.27 per cent of total solid matter. The process of production consisted essentially in fermenting materials ordinarily used in the production of malt liquors, viz.: Malted grain, rice, glucose, etc., by yeast cells taken from a wine. This yeast tends to produce the flavor and taste of wine instead of the flavor of a malt liquor, which would result if a beer yeast were used, and a wine-like liquor is the result.

Although, by the use of a wine yeast instead of a beer yeast in the fermentation of the liquids used in the manufacture of this "malt wine," the result is a liquor which has both the appearance and the taste of wine, nevertheless it is not wine in any true meaning of the word, nor (as shown by the samples submitted, which were not "made in imitation of sparkling wine or cham

pagne," nor "produced by being rectified or mixed with distilled spirits or by the infusion of any matter in spirits") is it such an imitation wine as section 3328, Revised Statutes, describes.

In the manufacture of the particular liquor submitted in this case for examination, barley malt was used, and as ferment the yeast from 1893 Steinberg Cabinet Wine. Whenever, therefore, this fermented liquor is made for sale, the manufacturer of it is required to pay special tax as a brewer under the first subdivision of section 3244, Revised Statutes, and to give notice and . bond as a brewer under sections 3335 and 3336, Revised Statutes, and pay tax on the liquor under section 3339, Revised Statutes.

If, in the manufacture of a fermented liquor similar in look and flavor to this, there were used instead the juices of fruits, this ruling of course would not apply.

Treasury Decision, February 24, 1898.

SPECIAL TAXES ON MALT BEVERAGES.

Dealers in any small beer that is a beverage similar to weiss beer, and is either fermented malt liquor, diluted and reduced in alcoholic strength, or is a fermented liquor made from some substitute for malt, are required to pay special tax as malt-liquor dealers.

It is held that rice and grain of any kind other than malt, bran and glucose are substitutes for malt within the meaning of the first subdivision of section 3244, Revised Statutes, and that sugar and molasses are also substitutes for malt when either is the main ingredient used in the manufacture of a beer, and the quantity so used is sufficiently large to make such beer a similar fermented liquor to weiss beer.

Treasury Decision, March 24, 1898.

SPECIAL TAX-BREWERS.—

A brewer holding a special tax stamp of the smaller class is not required to pay special tax as a brewer of the larger class until the entire quantity of beer produced by him within the special-tax year amounts to 500 barrels. As soon as the quantities produced month by month within that period amount in the aggregate to 500 barrels he must pay the special tax of a brewer of the larger class for the entire year ($100). He may then send in his stamp of the smaller class for redemption.

Treasury Decision, June 2, 1898.

BREWERS MUST PAY TAX AS WHOLESALE DEALERS FOR SALE FROM PLACE OF STORAGE.

Brewers who establish places of storage for bottled beer, and complete sales by delivery therefrom to purchasers in whole