Home brewing and beer prohibition in America

In 1919, the US Constitution endorsed the 18th Amendment, which induced the prohibition period. Across the whole United States of America, manufacturing, transporting, and selling the alcohol was proscribed. Of course, the home brewing was banned as well. Moreover, many protests were seen where they were holding posters of disapproval.

Then in 1933, the 21st Amendment was endorsed which annulled the alcohol prohibition. This gave the manufacturers permission to produce and sell the beer. However, the homebrewing was still not allowed even after legislation included the permission for homebrewing. After 55 years of legislation and prohibitions, the homebrewing was brought in the journey of legislation.

Federal Legalizations

In 1978, on 14th October, the HR1337 bill was signed and passed by President Jimmy Carter, which allowed the homebrewing of the United States of America. In this document, excise taxes or public transportation and trucks were imposed. In addition, Senator Alan Cranston and William Steiger called in the homebrewing treatment under Amendment No, 5354.

In HR1336, homemakers were allowed to brew 100 gallons (379 L) per person per year or 200 gallons (757 L) per household, which was endorsed on 1st February 1979. It is said that President Carter is the hero for homebrewers, but Cranston and Steiger are the ones we need to hail as they were the ones who legalized the homebrewing. According to the experts, this is here the homebrewing started from.

Fair Usage & State Legalization

Long ago, the alcohol manufacturing was the sole decision of the countries, and the lack of standardized rules was an intriguing factor. The endorsement of these rules at the federal level was surely a game-changer of the homebrewing industry, but again the individual states had to put in efforts for the legalization. The American Homebrewer Association was launched with an aim to help the states in getting the legal activities done.

There were some states that enhanced the speed of legalization and improved the endorsement of the policies, but some states developed their own policies. In 2013, Mississippi and Alabama legalized the homebrewing along with the other 48 states.  This signifies the early adoption of the homebrewing legislations.

After all these legislations and the legalization of homebrewing in over 50 states around the world, homebrewing is still a matter of subjectivity. There is a multitude of laws that allow the homebrewing, but transporting and sharing has been made illegal. It is easy to say that these limitations in the legislations are confusing at an exponential scale. However, on the brighter side, we can see that the homebrewing has come a long way. Remember the time when the homebrewing was outlawed entirely in 1919, yeah, so stay hopeful and enjoy hat has been allowed!