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   [[Styles of beer]]
 
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== History of Home Brewing ==
 
== History of Home Brewing ==

Revision as of 14:26, 12 February 2007

A glass of amber ale

Beer is many things to many people, but fundamentally it is a fermented beverage made from four basic ingredients: malt from various grains, hops, yeast, and water. There are also occasions when one might desire to use certain adjuncts, but they are generally not required.


Commercial Brewing

(I think we need an short intro to brewing in general leading into homebrewing)

  • Reinheitsgebot

Many Homebrewers aspire to the level of brewing achieved by the brewing industry but in many ways homebrewers can brew better beer than the commercial breweries due to lack of cost constraint. Home brewers can use techniques not available to larger brewers.

Home Brew

Two carboys full of fermenting beer.

People today have an unprecedented ability to brew almost anything they can imagine at home, and homebrewing has seen a surge in popularity in the last couple decades. More and more people are learning to brew, and becoming rather skilled at it. In fact, many microbreweries in operation today, such as Stone and Dogfish Head, to name just a couple, were started by former or current homebrewers.

Main Articles

Click on one of the beer links below to begin your journey of discovery into the wonderful world of home brewing.

 Home Brewing Process
 Brewing Equipment
 Storing your beer(Bottles, Kegs, Casks Etc.)
 Serving and Consumption of your beer 
 Styles of beer
 Glossary
 Terms and Abbreviations

History of Home Brewing

Through its evolution, beer has taken many forms, and drawn its character from a variety of grains and adjuncts. For centuries its production was cloaked in mystery, brewed by priests, called a gift from the gods. Even yeast, before it was understood, was called "godisgood" in old English.


History of Home brewing in the UK

Brewing can be traced back for many thousands of years to early civilisation.

The drink that we call "beer" today was originally called "ale." At first ale was made by fermenting an extract from cereals or grains. Wheat, Rye and maize (especially in Africa) was used as well as barley. Herbs of one kind or another were used for flavouring, the stinging nettle was popular. Families made their own ale. Estate workers received ale as part of their wages. As communications developed and taverns came into existence each one brewed their own ale and put a fresh bush outside to indicate that a fresh brew was available.

Although the Romans had imported hops to flavour their own beer, the taste never really caught on for more than a thousand years. Hopped ale which we now call beer did not come into common use until the beginning of the 15th century.

Throughout the country ale and beer was the drink of the common people, prior to the introduction of tea, coffee and cocoa and so on in the on the eighteenth century.

One of the earliest attempts to control home production was the Inland Revenue Act of 1880 which required a 5 shilling licence. The popularity hit an all time low in the years after the second world war. In 1963 the Chancellor removed the need for a licence and paved the way for the popularity to rise. The first real surge of home brewers came from within the ranks of the home wine makers. C.J.J Berry helped to generate an interest in the first home wine making boom by producing the Amateur Winemaker magazine. After Dave line wrote for Amateur Winemaker he wrote The Big Book of Brewing in 1974.

Over the next 20 or so the popularity peaked with major chain stores and chemists stocking equipment and ingredients. This meant that everybody had easy availability in their locality.

Today the local homebrew shop scene is a former shadow of its self. The dominance of a few larger Mail Order firms means its' easy to order standard Items from a few main distributors. Thankfully there are a few firms that are willing and able to supply imports from the USA where the range of ingredients and equipment is vastly superior to the UK. Camra who campaign for real ale are doing a good job in education the population and helping generate a new generation of home brewers.


History of Home brewing in the USA

(article Required.)

  • The prohibition
  • November 1978, Congress passed a bill repealing Federal restrictions on the homebrewing of small amounts of beer. Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law in February 1979
  • Charlie Papazian founded the Association of Brewers. In 1984 Papazian published The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.

External Links

Beer Advocate Homepage

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