Homebrew

What is homebrew and home-brewing?

The terminology homebrew basically refers to any alcoholic beverage that is brewed at home and most commonly refers to home-brewed beer although it also refers to homemade wines as well. Consequently, home-brewing has come to be known as the art of brewing beer or making wine at home. Home-brewing can also refer to the production of other beverages whether they are alcoholic or not (e.g. cider) as a home hobby for one of any of the following purposes:

oamateur home-brewing competitions

odistributing the beverage at social gatherings

opersonal consumption in the home

oother non-commercial reasons

Drinking homebrewed beverages and the art of home-brewing is nothing new and has been practiced for centuries. It has been subjected to prohibition as well as other regulations in the past.

More recently, the hobby of home-brewing has experienced increasing popularity which has created another hobby-oriented sub-culture in society. Today, legality issues with home-brewing vary from one country to the next. Most countries allow home-brewing. However, some will limit the allowable quantities that an individual can produce. Additionally, fewer countries allow the distillation of hard liquor.

History of homebrew and home-brewing

The history of brewing alcoholic beverages spans some 7,000 years and dates back to ancient China, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. In addition to the home-brewing of alcoholic beverages, the wine making began in ancient Egypt, was passed on to the ancient Greeks, and finally the ancient Romans. Home-brewed beverages began being produced in mass during the 1700's with the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

Although the consumption and sale of alcoholic beverages has never been prohibited in some countries such as the UK, the practice of home-brewing has been subjected to many regulations and taxation throughout the first half of the 1900's. In the UK, the Inland Revenue Act of 1880 was one of the earliest attempts at regulating the private production of alcoholic beverages during modern times. At that time, you were required to purchase a home-brewing license for a fee of 5 schillings in order to brew your own alcoholic beverages or make wine at home.

During the 1920's in the US, Prohibition Laws put a serious crimp in the home-brewing and wine-making industry. During this era in US History, numerous breweries, distilleries, and vineyards across the US were either ordered to shut their doors or they were placed into a position where they were producing malt to be used in non-alcoholic beverages. On an interesting note, home wine-making was legalized when Prohibition was repealed. However, the words "and/or beer" were omitted from the ruling due to a clerical error.

As a result of this, homebrewed beers were considered illegal until Jimmy Carter (the 39th President of the US) when he signed a congressional bill which repealed the government restrictions on home-brewing smaller quantities of beer. Prior to this, Reggie Maudling, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, had removed brewing license requirement resulting from the 1880 Inland Revenue Act in April of 1963.