Can you make your own booze in Georgia? Here’s what law says on buying, brewing & drinking

If you have spent even one Sunday in Georgia, you know about the blue law about alcohol on Sundays. Before 2011, Sunday sales of alcohol were completely prohibited but thanks to the Brunch Bill, folks can start drinking in their favorite brunch spot promptly at 11 a.m. Alcohol sales are also prohibited before 8:30 a.m. and after 11:45 p.m.

Georgia has always had a complicated relationship with booze, and there are still some surprising laws that reflect that. Here are five laws that you probably didn’t know were still a thing.

You can’t buy booze within near a school or church

In Georgia, you can’t buy “distilled spirits in or within 100 yards of any church” or within 200 yards of a school. Now, there are some exceptions and they can get a little confusing, but it boils down to you having to get your booze away from school and church.

You can’t make your own alcohol

Bootleggers beware. People trying to make their alcohol will face penalties, and if you get caught with a still, it “shall be destroyed by the officers or agents seizing the property or otherwise disposed of as the commissioner directs.” No more bathtub gin for us Georgians.

You can’t own a vape… for alcohol

Knowing there is often a precipitous action that causes some law to exist makes this all the more interesting. In the state of Georgia it is unlawful to own “a Alcohol vaporizing device,” which means “any device, machine, or process that mixes any alcoholic beverages with pure oxygen or other gas to produce a vaporized product for the purpose of consumption by inhalation”

There are 9 “dry counties” in Georgia

Laws like this are left over from the days of Prohibition where lawmakers were interested in curtailing American drinking. You can’t purchase booze in Bleckley, Coweta, Dodge, Effingham, Franklin, Hart, Lumpkin, Murray and Union counties. Which probably means the surrounding counties have pretty hearty alcohol sales.

You can drink in public, but don’t get drunk

During Covid, Georgia slackened the laws concerning to-go drinks and public consumption. I know we all did takeout margaritas from our favorite Mexican restaurant. However, it is against the law to “ appear in an intoxicated condition in any public place” and can result in fines up to $1,000.

Stay out of Athens-Clarke County if you like to drink

Adult book stores can’t sell alcohol to its patrons, here. Nor can establishments sell two beers for the price of one. Seems like some of these laws need revisiting, because it is also prohibited to let your mule roam freely or read your favorite book after 2:45 a.m.

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