By Sarah Whitmire
By now, most beer lovers have heard all about homebrewing as a cost-effective way to drink great beer. Whatever your reason for not taking the plunge, DRAFTMag.com is here to clear up a few misconceptions about the process of turning water, malt, hops, and yeast into a tasty, drinkable beverage. During the next few weeks, we’ll be examining all the different aspects of homebrewing, from legal issues to implementation. Today, we kick off the series with part one.
More money now means less money later
Though the idea of spending a dollar or so per 12 oz. bottle is obviously tempting, homebrewing doesn’t come without a set of start-up costs. The first expense for most is a starter kit; a basic one will run anywhere from $100-200 with a wide range of included items. An entry-level homebrew kit from www.homebrewmart.com has nearly everything you will need (buckets, bottler, caps, even the ingredients for your first batch) to make five gallons of beer for roughly $150, with shipping and tax. On the higher end, the Deluxe Brewing Equipment Kit from www.homebrewheaven.com includes the basics in addition to a glass carboy, wort chiller, and an instructional DVD for about $240, with shipping and tax.
With each of these brew kits, you will also need to purchase a brewpot — recommended size is seven and a half gallons — that retails for about $80 and vessels in which to store your final product. Bottles are the most common option; you will need roughly 50 12 oz bottles for a five-gallon batch. Look to spend $25 on bottles (or you can opt for a complete keg system starting at about $200).
If you haven’t been doing the math, don’t worry; the approximate tally so far is $255. This means each bottle of your first batch of homebrew will set you back just over $5; a little scary for someone getting into the hobby to save money. However, your second batch (assuming you didn’t break any equipment!) probably won’t cost more than a dollar a bottle, depending on the type of beer you choose.
What about the long-term factor? If you are dedicated and get a good amount of mileage out of your kit, the payoff only increases. If you were to brew 10 successful batches of beer with your $255 investment (plus nine more $50 kits); the individual bottle price comes to roughly $1.41.
Keep it clean!
Bacteria-free beer is tasty beer. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to experience a home brew gone wrong, odds are pretty good it tasted funky due to bacterial contamination. Anything that touches the wort after it has been boiled has to be sanitized. No doubt, this is a chore, but it is better than throwing out a whole batch of your time and energy (especially after waiting two weeks for bad beer to ferment).
Be a good student, take notes
The best brewmasters all suggest keeping track of what ingredients you have in each homebrew, and making tasting notes to record what you liked and didn’t like from the batch. Theoretically, every batch you make will be better than the one before as you discover what works best for your palette.
Play by the rules
Depending on where you live, the law may cramp your homebrewing style. Even though Federal restrictions against homebrewing small amounts of beer were lifted in 1979, some states are slow to follow suit. (Editor’s note: This should not be substituted for official legal advice. Make sure to check your local laws before beginning to homebrew.)
Twenty states have made homebrewing legal, but still ban the sale: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (cannot gift more than 20 gallons), Minnesota, Nebraska (simple fermentation only), New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Washington D.C., Wisconsin, and Wyoming
Twelve states have made homebrewing legal, ban the sale, and restrict gallonage. The following states allow only 200 gallons yearly for households with two or more adults (21+), and 100 gallons yearly for households with only one adult (21+): California, Delaware (recently legal March 2008), Florida, Hawaii, Missouri, New Jersey (recently legal January 2009, requires $15 permit for one-year license), Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah (recently legal August 2009)
The following two states impose yearly limits of 50 gallons:
Connecticut — only 50 gallons for one adult household
Georgia — allows only 50 gallons a year, must be less than 6% ABV
Six states that have made homebrewing legal, ban the sale, and limit alcohol content by either volume or weight:
Arkansas — 5% ABV or less, also no more than 200 gallons
Iowa — 5% alcohol by weight (6.335% ABV) or less
Kansas — 3.2% alcohol by weight (4.054% ABV) or less
Montana — 7% alcohol by weight (8.869% ABV) or less
North Carolina — 15% ABV or less
South Carolina — 5% alcohol by weight (6.335% ABV) or less
Three states with their own laws:
Alaska — The country’s northernmost state has screwy rules about alcohol; Alaskan Alcohol Beverage Control mandates that each municipality has local control on selling, importing, and possessing alcohol. Whatever local control placed on alcohol in general applies to home manufacture as well.
Idaho — Homebrewing is completely legal in Idaho, if the brew in manufactured with native-grown products.
Alabama — Officially the only state in the nation that has actual state law stating that homebrewing of beer is illegal. Not only that, Alabama also prohibits the distribution or sale of any beer over 6% ABV. Until just recently (August 2009) however, Utah was the only other state in which homebrewing was illegal.
The nine remaining states have a dotted line to tread; no existing state legislation declares homebrewing beer legal, or illegal. In some cases, clauses of alcohol control law state that laws only apply to alcohol that is sold; every state bans sale of homebrewed alcohol, so many operate under the fact that if the homebrew isn’t sold, it’s free and clear: Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi (homemaking wine is legal), Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia
– Sarah Whitmire is an intern at DRAFTMag.com.
By Sarah Whitmere
