How Far We’ve Come

Looking back, it is amazing how far the homebrewing hobby has come over the past four decades. I started homebrewing in 1985, shortly after I found out it was both legal and relatively easy to do. But ingredients were not always easy to source back then — this was long before internet commerce was a thing. 

After driving many miles to the “local” homebrew shop, it was not uncommon to find that they stocked old and outdated malt extracts, grains, (unrefrigerated) hops, and warm sachets of a single type and brand of dry yeast. Or they were out of whatever needed ingredient or piece of equipment you went there to buy.

And common was the supplier whose homebrew goods were shoehorned into a store that actually served a primary purpose, like a liquor store or bike repair shop. I remember there was even a guy who jointly shared his homebrew supply shop with his wife who did dog grooming on the same premises!

For a while in the mid-1990s, I used to buy my homebrew supplies from a retailer who also specialized in sales of hydroponic equipment, which is especially useful for growing things (legal and otherwise) indoors. The gardening equipment was actually the bread-and-butter of his business. Unbeknownst to me, that store was being staked out by law enforcement, whose intent was to snare illicit marijuana growers. Apparently, I shopped there while the investigation was taking place, and only later did I realize that I also got caught up in the dragnet. 

While out of town one morning, I received a phone call from my wife who was about to leave for work. As she opened the garage door, there was a black car with two occupants in it, idling on the street at the end of our driveway. The gumshoe riding shotgun wasted no time snapping pictures of our vehicles — and who knows what else — with a camera outfitted with a telephoto lens.

To this day, I still wonder what they thought my hop plants were, as they were plainly visible growing high above our backyard fence. 

This all reminds me of how precarious the homebrew hobby was in the early days. From the heady days of exploding beer bottles, to fermenters looking and smelling like bad science experiments, the early homebrewers in the U.S. were akin to American pioneers settling the West in Conestoga wagons. Well, it sometimes felt that way.

Thankfully, as I’ve told my readers and my students, there are no known pathogens in beer. But that didn’t make mistakes taste any better. It’s a wonder any of it was drinkable, or won awards, given what we had to work with. I guess the bar was set much lower for us. 

But no longer.

To see where the homebrewing hobby is today is extremely gratifying. The sheer variety of fresh ingredients from around the world, the efficient and economical newfangled brewing equipment, and the ever-updating of techniques have made it possible for virtually anyone to make commercial-quality beer (and cider, and mead) in their own homes.

Also hugely important has been the proliferation of information, experiences, and ideas freely passed down and all around. The sharing of information between brewers is what made modern homebrewing the success that it is. 

There has always been that deep satisfaction of drinking a flavorful refreshment made by one’s own hand, it is only exceeded by sharing a brew in kinship with others who understand and appreciate the passion imbued in every tasty drop.

What makes the homebrewing community great was, and still is, the community itself. May it ever be so.