Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power 15 years ago, it has pursued a policy of high taxes and high prices on alcohol to keep Turks away from the booze. Its efforts, however, seem to have backfired, as the home brewing of spirits, especially wine and beer, has become a fast-growing trend in Turkey.

Ironically, it was under the AKP that the home production of certain spirits became legal. Nazime Gurkan, a former member of the Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Alcoholic Beverages Regulation Board, told Al-Monitor that a legal amendment in 2008 allowed for the individual production of 350 liters of fermented spirits per year, including wine and beer. This was conditioned on it being for personal consumption only. Selling the spirits was prohibited, Gurkan said, as was the production of harder tipples, in the “distilled” category.

Yet as liquor prices skyrocketed, and even raki, the anise-flavored national booze, became a luxury for many, home production began to extend beyond wine and beer.

As Mustafa Sonmez reported in Al-Monitor in January, overall consumer prices increased 181% from 2003 to 2016, while the prices of raki, beer and wine rose by 500%, 423% and 235%, respectively, over the same period, primarily courtesy an exorbitant special consumption tax, which, for instance, stood at 54% for raki. As a result, raki sales fell to 39 million liters in 2015 compared with 44 million liters in 2004. Meanwhile, the consumption of wine and beer, favorites among young people and foreign tourists, increased.