Spring Break
Weekly Brew: Homebrewers among us
Tom Goodwin
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Focus
Saturday was National Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day, and no, I am not going to tell you how to brew beer in your dorm room (I would really like to keep this job), but the event itself is noteworthy. Homebrewers are responsible for the current state of beer and the only reason why you can walk into any decent package store and find American beer that is better than most beer made around the world.
But let's take a step back first, back to 1919, the year prohibition began. This being America, obviously some people had a problem with this and some of them did something about it. Many breweries, instead of closing their doors forever, started selling cans of malted barley syrup with instructions that provided information if you just happened to be curious how to make beer out of it. Thus, in the ultimate time of need, homebrewing was born.
Let's continue our little trip through time to the year 1933 when the 21st Amendment is passed and alcohol consumption is once again legal, including the production of wine in households. But just wine; due to a clerical error, beer was left off the amendment and homebrewing continued to be illegal.
Now it's the year 1945 and American soldiers are returning home from World War II and many days spent abroad. They're also bringing back with them a taste for European beer they can not find anywhere in the US. A spark is lit and the desire for beer increases.
In 1978 Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, an amendment that removed the taxation from beer brewed at home, thereby allowing people to brew beer for personal use. It went into effect February of 1979, and for the first time in 50 years beer brewing at home was once again legal.
This brings us to today, in terms of history at least. There are still several states. But, where homebrewing remains illegal; these include Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi.
So you have a bunch of people who have just recently been allowed to actually make beer themselves and can't get a hold of the kind of beer they actually want. So they start brewing beers like German hefe-weizens and Belgian dubbels and English bitters. Some of them get pretty good at it too. Probably under the influence, they decide they want to open breweries of their own.
But let's take a step back first, back to 1919, the year prohibition began. This being America, obviously some people had a problem with this and some of them did something about it. Many breweries, instead of closing their doors forever, started selling cans of malted barley syrup with instructions that provided information if you just happened to be curious how to make beer out of it. Thus, in the ultimate time of need, homebrewing was born.
Let's continue our little trip through time to the year 1933 when the 21st Amendment is passed and alcohol consumption is once again legal, including the production of wine in households. But just wine; due to a clerical error, beer was left off the amendment and homebrewing continued to be illegal.
Now it's the year 1945 and American soldiers are returning home from World War II and many days spent abroad. They're also bringing back with them a taste for European beer they can not find anywhere in the US. A spark is lit and the desire for beer increases.
In 1978 Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, an amendment that removed the taxation from beer brewed at home, thereby allowing people to brew beer for personal use. It went into effect February of 1979, and for the first time in 50 years beer brewing at home was once again legal.
This brings us to today, in terms of history at least. There are still several states. But, where homebrewing remains illegal; these include Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi.
So you have a bunch of people who have just recently been allowed to actually make beer themselves and can't get a hold of the kind of beer they actually want. So they start brewing beers like German hefe-weizens and Belgian dubbels and English bitters. Some of them get pretty good at it too. Probably under the influence, they decide they want to open breweries of their own.
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