Right, I think I've figured it out...
ALDA says that beer is (and, of course that you can homebrew same):
âBeerâ includes ale, porter, stout and any other description of beer, and any liquor which is made or sold as a description of beer or as a substitute for beer and which is of a strength exceeding 0.5 per cent., but does not includeâ
(a)black beer the worts whereof before fermentation were of a specific gravity of 1200° or more;
It also states that black beer is:
âblack beerâ means beer of the description called or similar to black beer, mum, spruce beer or Berlin white beer, and any other preparation (whether fermented or not) of a similar character;
Now, these names, although not completely alien to me, left me scratching my head a little...
So with a bit of googling the thing they have in common is that they are all historically speaking at least, more, well, "country" brews, gruits and the like, bittered and flavoured with stuff other than hops... or not at all...
Now examining the phrase in question...
makes or has in his possession any wort or wash fit for distillation
I think the key word here is "fit". We could interpret that as "well, anything with ethanol in it *can* be distilled". But I don't believe that's what's intended. I think fit should be taken to mean "adapted or suited" or "prepared and ready".
Consider what would be an ideal candidate wort or wash and very quickly you see why the exclusion to the term "beer" exists!
So, in short, I would say that the worts that we might have kicking around, unhopped even, unless you prepare them to an original gravity of 1.201 or higher are perfectly fine...
...Indeed, thinking back on my Ghost Deer cloning hypothesis, that too would be fine, I think, being a hopped beer, a more traditional ale-y kind of thing, just brewed beyond the 1.200 cut off in the exclusion from the definition of beer. Being not of the black beer, mum, spruce beer or berlin white beer or similar style suggests that it would be fine...
Interestingly, the alcotec wash kits could land you in bother if your OG goes beyond 1.200!!! Brewing a wash seems to fall into the spruce beer or similar category according to wikipedia:
Alcoholic spruce beer may also be made from sugar and flavoring from the spruce tree. Leaves, small branches, or extracted essence of spruce are boiled with sugar and fermented with yeast. Two different sources of sugar may be used, either molasses or white refined sugar.
Basically, if you are going extreme wash brewing, take a dated photo of your OG reading of less than 1.200...
...as you were chaps.
