Can a Home Brewer Brew Home brew as Good as Great Craft Brew?
Folks have made beer at home for several years. In my home here in the U.S. of A, several of our country's founders were home beer brewers, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. In 1919, a new law made it illegal to make beer in this country, but of course it is well known people still made beer, at home and elsewhere. They still sold malt extract throughout The Great Experiment of prohibition, and it even typically had warnings printed on it not to add water and yeast, as alcohol could well be the result. Times were grim for brewers and consumers alike, and I suspect lots of the beer produced in people's homes in those days wasn't something many of us would enjoy drinking now.
Luckily for us, the Great Experiment was repealed in 1933, though there was a small oversight in the law - making wine at home was legal, yet the law allowing it did not specify our favorite beverage. Not until 1978 did things change, when 39th president Jimmy Carter signed an amendment exempting home brew from taxes. At the time of this writing, it is legal to brew your own beer in almost every state (sorry to the folks in Alabama and Mississippi).
While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was indeed an enormous setback for the commercial brewing industry in the U.S., the 1990s produced an awesome change. The so-called microbrewery or "craft brewing" movement brought to the U.S. types of beer virtually forgotten in the U.S. prior. We were treated to loads of great, neighborhood brew-pubs showing up nationwide. Of course there were also plenty of less satisfactory places too. Things have settled some, and we are a couple years into the second decade of the Twenty-first century, and it's clear to me that what we can buy right now is so much better than it was 20 years ago. Most of the lower-quality breweries have faded away, but the good ones keep getting better. You can't help but ask yourself if it's worth the effort to brew your own. All things considered, can someone really put out something as good as a Pliny the Younger, or Hair of the Dog's Fred?
I'm happy to say, absolutely yes! You'll need to brew a lot, as well as read and study a lot, but you should realize that those you admire for making that delicious micro-brewed beer began as home brewers.
You probably won't brew a beer quite as good as them the first time. But you can brew a really good beer from your very first batch I mean you'll brew a beer that you'll be proud to serve to your friends, a beer that will put a twinkle in your eye knowing you brewed it yourself. And, setting aside the occasional mishap, every batch you make is going to be just a little bit improved over previous attempts. And while it's great to aspire to make a beer that tops the best you can purchase, much of the enjoyment for a home brewer is brewing frequently, trying to get just a little bit better. That, and showing off the results of our efforts.
Luckily for us, the Great Experiment was repealed in 1933, though there was a small oversight in the law - making wine at home was legal, yet the law allowing it did not specify our favorite beverage. Not until 1978 did things change, when 39th president Jimmy Carter signed an amendment exempting home brew from taxes. At the time of this writing, it is legal to brew your own beer in almost every state (sorry to the folks in Alabama and Mississippi).
While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was indeed an enormous setback for the commercial brewing industry in the U.S., the 1990s produced an awesome change. The so-called microbrewery or "craft brewing" movement brought to the U.S. types of beer virtually forgotten in the U.S. prior. We were treated to loads of great, neighborhood brew-pubs showing up nationwide. Of course there were also plenty of less satisfactory places too. Things have settled some, and we are a couple years into the second decade of the Twenty-first century, and it's clear to me that what we can buy right now is so much better than it was 20 years ago. Most of the lower-quality breweries have faded away, but the good ones keep getting better. You can't help but ask yourself if it's worth the effort to brew your own. All things considered, can someone really put out something as good as a Pliny the Younger, or Hair of the Dog's Fred?
I'm happy to say, absolutely yes! You'll need to brew a lot, as well as read and study a lot, but you should realize that those you admire for making that delicious micro-brewed beer began as home brewers.
You probably won't brew a beer quite as good as them the first time. But you can brew a really good beer from your very first batch I mean you'll brew a beer that you'll be proud to serve to your friends, a beer that will put a twinkle in your eye knowing you brewed it yourself. And, setting aside the occasional mishap, every batch you make is going to be just a little bit improved over previous attempts. And while it's great to aspire to make a beer that tops the best you can purchase, much of the enjoyment for a home brewer is brewing frequently, trying to get just a little bit better. That, and showing off the results of our efforts.
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All Grain Brewing dot org has tons of great information for intermediate to advanced home brewers. Take a look!