Buying equipment to make your own beer at home can be as easy as going to the supermarket.
Many Australians tinker in home brewing, and think nothing of sharing a homemade beer at a barbecue.
But making other alcoholic drinks at home, such as spirits, is illegal without a licence and can even be deadly.
Police in Queensland are investigating the cause of death of three men last month.
The men are believed to be drinking a home-made spirit called "grappa" before they died.
Marina Freri reports.
Grappa is thought to have been invented in the Alps region of north-eastern Italy during the Roman Empire.
The spirit is made by distilling grape by-products left over from making wine and can contain up to 60 per cent alcohol.
Italian-Australian doctor Renato Vecchies was born in Italy's Veneto region and says he was exposed to grappa manufacturing from an early age.
He recalls his nonna drinking grappa early in the morning to face the cold winter weather in the Alps.
He says the practice of making grappa is thousands of years old.
"The legend is a Roman soldier in northern Italy, in the province of Vicenza, there's a mountain called 'Monte Grappa', the Roman soldier was distilling some wine and made grappa. That's just the legend. But also grappa was probably named after the wine grapes or 'graspa', as we called in the local dialect there, that is really made from direct fermentation of crushing the grape and leaving it to ferment and then distilling that, and you get grappa."
The tradition of making home-made grappa is believed to have been brought to Australia by Italian migrants.
A similar brandy, called rakia, is also made in some Balkan nations by fermenting and distilling fruit.
The Australian Taxation Office is the body responsible for alcohol licencing at a federal level.
An ATO spokesperson says beer and wine can be made legally at home for personal consumption, but a licence is needed to make spirits, even if it is intended only for personal use.
As well as being potentially illegal, making spirits at home can be deadly.
Director of the National Drug Research Institute, Steve Allsop distilling alcohol is extremely risky.
"The distillation itself if not properly attended to, can result in toxins being formed, but also it's very hard to understand chemicals or what products people have used in the manufacturing process. So sometimes people will use products, which are inherently dangerous, like products for industrial processes."
A group of four men were believed to be drinking homemade grappa at a property near Stanthorpe in south-east Queensland in June before three of them died.
The fourth ended up in intensive care in a Brisbane hospital.
It is not known exactly what was in their drinks.
Many within the Italian community continue to make grappa, however it is a practice kept secret by some.
This Italian man from Victoria, who did not want to be named, says he learned how to make the strong Italian spirit by watching elders in his community.
He says distillation can be a risky business for amateurs.
"The most dangerous thing in manufacturing alcohol at home is that the difference in temperature between distilling ethanol, which is grappa, and methanol, which is poisonous, is only 5 degrees. If you cook it slowly, you obtain ethanol. If you cook it fast, you get methanol too, which poisons you."
Italian-Australian winemaker Darren De Bortoli says methanol can also create other dangerous chemical compounds if the alcohol is not distilled correctly.
"The problem with methanol is that the distillation process would concentrate these compounds. That's why it's so dangerous with fruits such as peaches. If you have broken the seeds or the seeds have leached cyanide into the liquor, and you would distill that, that would concentrate the cyanide."
Grappa is sold commercially in Australia, but some members of the Italian community lament that what used to be a farmers' treat has become a luxury.
This Italian man, who also did not want to be identified, says he used to make his own because retail prices are too high in Australia.
He also says many elderly Italians believe the spirit could treat several medical conditions, including joint pain.
"Surely, it was used for massage. My mother and my father used grappa more for massaging than for drinking. It's like using a gel on joints, you put grappa, it helps, it causes heat."
Italian-Australian doctor Pietro Demaio is the author of a book titled "Preserving the Italian Way."
The book includes a chapter on home distillation and grappa manufacturing.
Dr Demaio says producing alcohol at home may seem easy, but warns those who ignore the science behind it may drink a fatal shot.
"The problem is that everything that we make at home even though it is made at home and it seems simple, it is a very complex scientific process. And I use one example. Grappa is one thing where you have to be very mindful of methanol production versus ethanol production, which, if you stick to the traditional processes, you'll be fine."
Doctor Renato Vecchies agrees home-distillation should remain illegal.
However he believes it would be a shame to lose the grappa tradition in Australia.
"I agree that it should be forbidden to distill alcohol, because then you allow other alcohol products to be distilled, people start making whiskey, gin and things. And if you are not careful you can poison yourself and you've got this black market going on. So I'm against it for all this reasons. I'm in favour because, traditionally I come from an area where grappa is famous."
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