Should there be any lingering doubt about our Puritanical Heritage, all a person has to do is to scan 27 CFR, parts 1-31 to view our statutory fretting about ethanol. This is the code that covers the production and sale of alcohol. Part 19 is particularly interesting since it pertains to distilled spirit production and the documentation requirements therein.
It is a funny thing. The more regulation that I come into contact with, the more libertarian I become. Righteous persons might say that gangsterism that arose over liquor in the prohibition days clearly demonstrates how an underground laissez faire production and distribution economy can arise under poor enforcement conditions. I would counter that gangster control of liquor arose quite naturally from the substantial profits from high demand for forbidden intoxicants. It is in the nature of puritans to deny access to natural urges.
One of the unfortunate consequences of this requlatory fixation on ethanol (EtOH) is evident in chemical processing. Purified EtOH is highly taxed and regulated with licensure requirements. Denatured EtOH is available, but is contaminated with additives that may be deleterious to the reaction conditions or could leave undesirable residues. The result is that manufacturers use methanol in place of EtOH. Methanol is inexpensive and is unregulated for coolant, solvent, or reagent use, but it does have the downside of being more toxic than EtOH.
The result is that process chemists may engineer around the need for ethanol in favor of methanol. Absolute or 95 % ethanol for processing carries the penalty of added documentation and expense that few have an interest in. In effect, because of regulations and taxes, chemical workers are exposed to methanol rather than the less toxic ethanol. Using ethanol vs hydrocarbon-derived alcohols carries a benefit of being faintly greener owing to the renewability of ethanol.
Speaking of intoxicants, at a recent street festival I happened to try a New Belgium brand of beer called Mothership Wit. As I tipped it back, the FortJazz band was belting out a brassy Zoot Suit Boogie. It was dusk, 75 degrees, still air, under a cloudless sky. Ordinarily I’m not a big fan of wheat beers. But this had a fruity finish that was remniscent of juicy fruit gum. The orange peel and the coriander somehow conspire to produce this subtle effect. I rather enjoyed the Mothership Wit and the music. It was a grand time.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
An advocate makes virtue of failure. The worse the cure the better the treatment – and the more that is required. There is no government social intercession in the past 50 years that has not made the targeted problem infinitely worse in both time and space – Welfare, healthcare, education, addiction, border security, crime against honest citizens… and now Homeland Severity.
Synthetic ethanol is completely different from fermentation ethanol. When buying and selling are regulated, the first things to be bought and sold are the regulators.
In an earlier job, a coworker supposedly had a still that he used for making apple brandy for himself. Turning the apples in apple wine is perfectly legal in smaller amounts (I seem to recall 200 gallons/year from my zymurgy days), turning the wine into brandy brings in the feds. WHY? What has always bothered the most with the regulations is the apparent lack of understanding that distillation does not change the total amount of EtOH, it only concentrates it (other than what is lost in the tails.)
He had inquired into going legit, and found that the federal requirements were long and tediuous, but non-judgmental. Getting approval from the local authorities to open a “still” was a political hot potato that no one wanted to touch.