Yuri makes a good point, though. While most instances would illicit a "RDWHAHB" from me---some kid putting the legality of my homebrewing in jeopardy isn't one of them. Today's overreactionary ******* politicians would love to make this some kind of pet issue, and the overreactionary media would love to aid and abet. I can just see it now...one kid gets caught making "bathtub brew" in his dorm room, and suddenly, all the idiot talking heads on the morning shows are blathering about how it's the worst scourge since oxycontin. Said ******* politician swings into action and demands that we must ban the hobby altogether, because as long as people are legally allowed to obtain malt, hops water and yeast, there's no way to control this "scourge". I mean, good god, ANY kid could make "bathtub brew" in his/her dorm room, and then they could share it with their friends, and they could all DIE! DIE, I tell you!
And the sheeple would all fall into line and support the ban. And then I'd be forced to buy malt and hops and yeast from a dealer in a back alley at 10X the cost, and I'd have to hide my homebrew operation in a shed in the woods and guard it with dogs and a gun.
F*ck that, dude. In an ideal world, this "kid", who is old enough to go kill and be killed by "insurgents" would be able to legally combine yeast, hops, water and malt and drink the resulting liquid. But we don't live in that world. We live in the world where some kid finds a glitch in a video game which shows a pixellated sex scene, and suddenly all of the US Congress swings into action to demonize video games and call for their destruction.
[/soapbox]
