Many regulatory bodies and legislators are unaware of how homebrewers operate. The American Homebrewers Association helps advise and educate state legislators and regulators on the responsibility of the homebrewing community, and advocates for fairer and more reasonable homebrewing rights. With alcohol so heavily regulated, modernizing those codes has met with resistance. Many alcohol codes were created after Prohibition and have been slow to change with the times. Antiquated laws that restrict transporting, sharing, serving, and storing homebrew are at the forefront of homebrew legalization initiatives these days. Passage of favorable homebrew legislation creates a more diverse and flourishing homebrew community. Even with homebrewing being legal in all 50 states, some states still have prohibitive laws on the books that makes it difficult to be a homebrewer. Today, the American Homebrewers Association and other organizations continue to pursue fair and reasonable homebrew laws across the country. It wasn’t until 2013–nearly 100 years after Prohibition made homebrewing illegal–that making beer at home became legal in all 50 states, with Mississippi and Alabama the last to establish homebrew legality that year. Some states were quick to adopt the federal legalization as their state’s policy on home beermaking, while others developed their own language. The American Homebrewers Association made it our mission to advocate for homebrew legality one state at a time. So, while the legalization of homebrewing at the federal level was a huge win for the hobby beermaking community, it also meant effort was needed in each state to truly make homebrewing a legal activity. Since that time, despite the federal government’s role in the regulation of alcohol, the primary source of restrictions and privileges flows from state law-and as a result, regulations still vary widely from state to state. This legislation eventually culminated with the federal prohibition on the manufacturing and sale of alcohol, but that created its own set of issues.Īfter the repeal of Prohibition, the Twenty-first Amendment incorporated the language of the Webb-Kenyon Act, giving states additional power to regulate alcoholic beverages. To reign in this activity, Congress passed the Wilson Act (1890) and Webb-Kenyon Act (1913) designed to give states more authority to control the flow of alcohol into their borders. At the time, legal doctrine made it easier for a company to ship alcohol across state lines so long as the beverage remained in its original packaging. In reaction to those prohibitive laws, eager businesses took advantage of existing legal doctrine from the courts to sell to thirsty consumers in “dry” alcohol areas. ![]() In the decades prior to national Prohibition, an increasing number of states enacted prohibition laws banning the sale of alcohol within their borders. alcohol policy through its embrace of federalism and states’ rights. ![]() It wouldn’t be until 2013 when Alabama and Mississippi legalized homebrewing that homebrewers could legally make beer in all 50 states.Ī look back to the early twentieth century helps understand homebrewing’s long legalization journey. On February 1, 1979, homebrewing officially became legal, kicking off the next mission to develop laws for homebrewers at the state level. It is the date President Jimmy Carter signed bill HR1337, which included the federal legalization of home beer making in the United States without federal taxation. October 14, 1978, is an important date for craft beer. By John Moorhead, American Homebrewers Association
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