If you want to know about home brewing and home brewing history, the best place is probably not in a museum or library. The best place to go for information and to get a feel of home brewing in the old days is to go to one of your local home brew shops. If you have never been in one of these stores you will be surprised because the moment you step in, it looks like time stood still. Many home brew stores are often part of a small brewery that produces there own wines, beers and/or even some non alcoholic beverages. Of course they also sell supplies for home brewers but they also use there own equipment to introduce others in the craft of brewing. They often sell their beverages in the shop and supply the local pup and party’s with their products.Many of these home brew shops and adjoining micro breweries where started by home brewers who made their hobby into work. Many just started making beer or wine and developed a good recipe that not only their family and friends liked to buy but also the friends of their friends, until the day came that complete strangers were asking for that special brew. After they acquired the licences to sell their products and found a good location to start there shop they were in business. These kind of shops are often the best ones to get good advice because they have been where you are at this moment.
Home brew shop owners of the kind we described above, are also the ones that at some point in there brewing career started collecting historical brewing stuff. Even though not much is changed in the brewing methods over the years the materials have changed, and have become more modern. Home beer brewing has only been legal in the USA since 1978 but in the period before the prohibition brewing at home was a common practice. Much of the home brewing equipment got lost during the prohibition and this is a reason that many collectors also collect brewing equipment from Europe and especially from Germany.
Germany is an important country when it comes to beer brewing, most of the popular aroma hops that are used grow extremely well in Germany. And because of this Germany is a real beer country. The aromatic hops are the most important ingredient of beer because the hops provide the beer’s taste. Because hops need to be fresh when you put them in your brew and they dry fairly quickly most home brew shops sell plugs or pellets. The taste of the beer can turn almost rancid, when you use old hops the hops from pellets have a much longer shelf life.
In the USA, the Prohibition of Alcohol lasted from 1920 until 1933 and when the ban was lifted it took until 1978 before a new law made it possible to brew beer at home again. In the years between 1933 and 1978 home brew shops were only allowed to sell materials for making wine and liquors. And even today home brewers can only produce 100 gallons of beer per person over 21 and with a maximum of 200 gallons a year.
About the Author
Drew Brown has one hobby and he loves to share it with the world. He just loves to brew his own beverages. www.brewingyourown.com