Home Brew Shops Often Offer Lessons In Brewing History
If you ever have the chance to walk through one of the numerous home brew shops located around the country, you may get the impression you have taken a step back in time. Many of the shops today are more than a place that sells supplies for brewing your own beer, wine and soft drinks. Many home brew shops are part of small production facilities that produce their own beverages, and only went into the supply side of the business to either help their financial picture or to introduce others to the art of home brewing.
Of course, some of the microbreweries got their start out of their owners’ hobby of making their own brew and with possibly several of their friends and family becoming enamored with their finished product began producing it for others. Once they had acquired the necessary licenses to sell their finished product, they could then open home brew shops to help teach others how to make their own special blends.
When beer makers tell you it is all in the hops, they are pretty accurate as the aroma hops sold in the home brew shops is what provides the beer’s taste. Since unprocessed hops dry fairly quickly and can turn the taste of the brew almost rancid, most home brew shops sell pellets or plugs, which have a much longer shelf life.
Seeing How It Used To Be Done
Once of the fascinating aspects about visiting some of the home brew shops is seeing how the process works and how it has basically remained unchanged for hundreds of years. While the equipment may be more modern and comprised mostly of stainless steel and copper tubing, many of the old brewing methods remain the same. Even though home brewing of beer has only been legal in the United States since 1978, prior to the prohibition era it was a common practice.
In Germany, where many of the most popular aroma hops are grown, producing beer was a common practice, even during the Prohibition of Alcohol in the United States between 1920 and 1933. When the ban was lifted by the 21st amendment, any home brew shops in business at the time were limited to wine and liquor making materials. Beer was left out of the repealed law supposedly by accident, until a new law was passed in 1978. Even now however, people can only produce 100 gallons per year for every adult over 21 in the household, with a maximum of 200 gallons a year allowed by law.
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