Home+Brew+to+Micro+Brew

Brent Plourde
= = = = =**Evolution of the home brewery into commercial microbrewery. **= = =

The history of home brewing in America is long one. As early as the colonial days, people were creating their own brews of beer for their private consumption and for that of their families and friends. The practice was considered common place and such famous historical figures as Samuel Adams and William Penn and Patrick Henry were known to have brewed their own beers. In this time, brew pubs were also a common site. These are small restaurant establishments who’s own house brews are among the main draws for patrons. These establishments often were opened to highlight an especially good local brewers creations and to provide a meeting place for people to come to both enjoy the beer and the company of other. The process of home brewing continued in the United States until the enactment of Prohibition in 1920 with the 18th Constitutional Amendment. During prohibition, Home brewing remained somewhat popular, but was largely curtailed due to the steep legal penalties of the Volstead act which enforced Prohibition. All brew pubs were closed and the only production facilities which were able to survive were ones with the capability and financial backing to produce non-alcoholic beers. This led eventually to a steep decline in private home brewers and the art was nearly lost in the US.

After the repeal of the 18th amendment in 1933 major beer production companies were producing consistent product and in association with the impacts of the depression, home brewing was unable to pick up it's former popularity for decades. Eventually consumers grew tired of the very similar options made available to them by the large beer producing corporations such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing company. These Corporations produced beer in a consistent way but it lacked much of the flavor and variety consumers desired. In the late 1970s and early 80s consumers once again began to make the process of creating their own beers popular. The concept took off like never before and some of the best home brewers took their much more flavorful products and opened small local breweries to compete locally with the influence of the large corporations. Some of these small brewers grew to be so popular that they were able to expand into national prominence while still producing a relatively small amount of product.

Today there are several small breweries call micro-breweries which were created by people who started making beer in their kitchen and found it to be so flavorful and popular amongst their friends and families that they were able to expand into multi-million dollar corporations and take a not insignificant fraction of the national beer sales from the large corporations. One of the most well known of these micro-breweries is Boston Brewing Co. makers of Samuel Adams beer. The process of creating "craft beers" has now become somewhat of an art form and home brewers with the best product are entering their beers into national and international contests and showing the world the possibilities of variety in the production of beers. For more information please visit the websites listed below.  [] []  []