| Have you considered brewing your own beer at | | | | Alabamans know, there are several home brew |
| home but it just seems to be too complicated? Well, | | | | stores operating within the state so the appetite for |
| brewing beer is not a complicated process and does | | | | enforcement seems to be pretty low. |
| not take a great deal of specialized equipment. If any | | | | Most other states permit beer brewing at home and |
| of you have taken a brewery tour, you might not | | | | allow 100 gallons of beer per person (over the age of |
| agree with that but remember that what you saw | | | | 21) per household up to a maximum of 200 gallons |
| was built to brew beer in the millions of gallons. At a | | | | per year. No w I am sure you will agree that 200 |
| more reasonable level, home brewing, the process is | | | | gallons is a lot of beer! Lets put that number in a |
| pretty much the same but the equipment needed is | | | | way we can more easily understand. 200 gallons of |
| not. | | | | beer is the rough equivalent of 355 six packs or 177 |
| Home brewing has been legal in the United States | | | | twelve packs. If you are spending your hard earned |
| since 1979 when President Carter signed into law a | | | | cash on this much beer, you are definitely a |
| measure repealing the last Federal restrictions on the | | | | candidate for home brewing! Just keep in mind that |
| home brewing of small amounts of beer. These | | | | the government does not allow you to sell any of |
| restrictions had been in place since Prohibition and | | | | your home brewed beer because they tax alcohol |
| were not lifted along with the restrictions on home | | | | and your sales would eat into their revenue. So keep |
| wine-making due to a clerical error omitting the | | | | it legal and make it for your own consumption. |
| words "and/or beer" from the original bill! You just | | | | Just like everything else individuals home brew beer |
| have to love those government bureaucrats. | | | | for a variety of reasons. Obviously, if you are a real |
| Today, the fifty individual states are free to restrict, | | | | fan of beer, brewing beer yourself can save a whole |
| or even prohibit, the brewing of beer, mead, hard | | | | lot of money (see the paragraph just above). Home |
| cider, wine and assorted other alcoholic beverages at | | | | brewing also gives you, as the brew master, the |
| home. One single example of this is a section of the | | | | ability to change recipes to suit your own taste. If |
| Alabama code that states "in all counties of the state | | | | you are not able to find a beer on the commercial |
| it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation | | | | market that suits your taste, brew your own! |
| o have in his or its possession any still or apparatus | | | | Similarly if you love beer and are also conscious of |
| to be used for the manufacture of any alcoholic | | | | the number of calories, you may want to brew a |
| beverage of any kind or any alcoholic beverage of | | | | very low-ethanol beer that still has taste. Home |
| any kind illegally manufactured or transported with in | | | | brewing is a low cost satisfying hobby that offers |
| the state or imported into the state from any other | | | | competitions where you can test your favorite recipe |
| place without authority of the alcoholic control board | | | | against other home beer brewers. You may |
| of the state...". While that is very restrictive, as many | | | | sometimes hear this referred to as "Craft Brewing". |
