Home brewing remaied illegal from the end of prohibition until a 1979 law was passed allowing the production and consumption of small amounts of beer at home for non-commercial uses, and exempted home brewers from paying the federal taxes levied on commercial producers. The right to further regulate homebrewers was reserved to the individual states. The result has been more that thirty years of creativity and enjoyment across the country.
Unfortunately, distilling remains illegal without federal permission, and remains heavily taxed; why don't we look at making distilling legal on the same model as homebrewing?