One of the first questions people often ask when they find out we make our own beer is, is that legal? In most cases, the answer is yes. In 1978, the federal government officially legalized home brewing and wine making. The person who spearheaded the effort was none other than the President.
President Jimmy Carter was a home brewer. He was not the first president to make his own beer and hopefully not the last. Carter’s family was full of brewers as well, in fact his brother produced a fairly well known commercial beer that was briefly available, called Billy Beer. I am too young to have been able to drink it myself, but I’m told it was a decent beer.
An individual is allowed to make up to 100 gallons of wine and 100 gallons of beer or malt beverages in a year. For a head of household, those numbers double to 200 gallons of each. However, the 21st Amendment of the Constitution, the wonderful Amendment which repealed Prohibition, also states that the individual States and counties are allowed to make their own laws regarding alcohol and makes a federal crime of transporting alcohol into areas where it is prohibited. Currently, Alabama and Utah are the only States that prohibit home brewing.
So, as long as you do not live in Utah or Alabama, you’re good to go. And don’t give up hope of making your own beer if you do live in one of those States. Efforts are underway to legalize or at least de-criminalize home brewing in those states.
However, it is illegal in all States to produce your own distilled alcohol, such as moonshine, rum, vodka, whiskey or the like. Distilling alcohol, or even owning certain distilling equipment is a crime punishable by fines, confiscation of your equipment and anything the feds can remotely connect to the distilling (including the land you distill on, the car you drive to the still in, any money in your bank account, your house, etc), and imprisonment.
The second question people ask is where do you get the supplies? Most major cities have homebrew supply stores. You can also find supplies online at various retailers. In order to not show favoritism or give free advertising, I won’t make any recommendations. Try putting “Beer supplies” or “brewing supplies” into your search engine, add your city if you are looking for someplace local.
A journey through the world of microbreweries, spirits, homebrewing, wine making, School and parenthood.
A Little About A Zymurgist Family
A little more about us That is Followed up in the Blog.....
We both grew up in the Wine Country of Northern California. One might assume we would be more interested in wine than beer because of this. However, Northern California has a great microbrewery industry too.
In addition to brewing and wine making, we are learning sign language. We plan to use some basic signs to help our daughter learn to communicate before she can talk. We’re already working on “Momma”, “Daddy”, “milk” and “eat”. When she masters those basic signs, we’ll move on to more words, like “play”, “poop”, and “cat”. Several studies have been done showing that children who learn to sign develop language skills earlier and do better in school. However, that’s not our primary reason for teaching her to sign. We're doing it for selfish reasons; it’s much easier to understand what exactly a toddler wants if she squeezes her fist (milk) than if she’s just crying. We want to be able to respond to her needs quicker, so she won’t feel that she has to cry to get want she wants. Hopefully, this will help avoid having her become a whiney child. Children who whine in public are some of the most annoying things in the world.
We are both in school right now, studying for a Paralegal degree and computer sciences degree. We met while working on an ambulance as paramedics. Our company shut down and we moved to Reno and got married. We expanded our family with 3 cats and 4 fish, then in September 2008 our beautiful daughter joined us making our family complete for now.
Besides brewing and wine making, we don’t have many hobbies, mostly from lack of time. Taking care of a toddler, full time school, and taking care of each other keeps us pretty busy. We take most of our courses online so we can be home with each other as much as possible. So, we hope you enjoy reading about our adventures with making and enjoying beer and wine. This is not a full time effort, so entries may be few and far between at times.
In addition to brewing and wine making, we are learning sign language. We plan to use some basic signs to help our daughter learn to communicate before she can talk. We’re already working on “Momma”, “Daddy”, “milk” and “eat”. When she masters those basic signs, we’ll move on to more words, like “play”, “poop”, and “cat”. Several studies have been done showing that children who learn to sign develop language skills earlier and do better in school. However, that’s not our primary reason for teaching her to sign. We're doing it for selfish reasons; it’s much easier to understand what exactly a toddler wants if she squeezes her fist (milk) than if she’s just crying. We want to be able to respond to her needs quicker, so she won’t feel that she has to cry to get want she wants. Hopefully, this will help avoid having her become a whiney child. Children who whine in public are some of the most annoying things in the world.
We are both in school right now, studying for a Paralegal degree and computer sciences degree. We met while working on an ambulance as paramedics. Our company shut down and we moved to Reno and got married. We expanded our family with 3 cats and 4 fish, then in September 2008 our beautiful daughter joined us making our family complete for now.
Besides brewing and wine making, we don’t have many hobbies, mostly from lack of time. Taking care of a toddler, full time school, and taking care of each other keeps us pretty busy. We take most of our courses online so we can be home with each other as much as possible. So, we hope you enjoy reading about our adventures with making and enjoying beer and wine. This is not a full time effort, so entries may be few and far between at times.