Can You Legally Brew Beer at Home?

Is it legal to brew beer at home? This is a question that always bugs the minds of people who are interested in brewing beer. Although brewing beer at home can be complicated and time consuming, it is also interesting and fun. Home brewing can also be simple as buying beer brewing kits available in the market. Most of these kits come complete with everything you need to make homebrew.

Understanding the four key ingredients needed in making beer; fermentable sugar, yeast, hops and water is very important. One should have an idea of what to do and how the ingredients interact with each other in the brewing process to make it successful. With enough knowledge and experience, you can even put your own twist to your homebrew to make it unique.

Is it legal?

If you have considered learning how to brew beer at home, you first need to find out if it’s legal or not. Home brewing has been legal in the USA since 1979 when President Carter signed a law repealing Federal restrictions on home brewing of small amounts of beer.

Currently, it is legal to brew beer in all 50 states. The law states that adults are free to produce beer without paying taxes for personal or family use but not for sale. Anyone aged 18 years or older is free to brew beer at home. A household brewing beer requires a specific age for sale of beer to individuals; the adults need to observe the age before starting the production of homebrew. However, this exemption does not allow the production of homebrew for use contrary to state or local law.

In addition, production of beer per household should not exceed 200 gallons per year if the house has more that than two adults. If the household has one adult, the production should, therefore, not exceed 100 gallons per year. Partnership except as provided in Sec. 25.207, associations or corporations are not allowed to produce beer without payment of tax for personal or family use.

If you still have questions on homebrew legality, you can use the internet to carry out research on brewing in your state or you can contact your local law offices to give you more information. Getting in touch with your County Extension Service is a great way to learn more about home brewing.

Once you start brewing beer at home, be careful to watch out for any minors in your house. This is done to prevent them from drinking beer which is not allowed by law. In case they do consume it, you can get into deep trouble with the authorities. Bottom line; produce your beer but keep it away from children.

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