Homebrewing has been around for centuries, and it’s what leads many brewers to open a brewery nowadays. For those on the outside of the industry, it might be tough to remember a time when homebrewing wasn’t legal in the United States. Surprisingly, it was 37 years ago, yesterday, that President Jimmy Carter signed
H.R. 1337 into legislation, officially making homebrewing federally legal.It’s crazy to think that homebrewing beer was still illegal after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, but at that time only home winemaking was made legal. That all changed in August of 1978 when Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) added an amendment to H.R. 1337, allowing for homebrewing to be treated the same as home winemaking.
On October 14, 1978 President Carter signed H.R. 1337 into legislation and, a little over three months later on February 1, 1979 H.R. 1337 went into effect. The legislation allowed for adults to produce beer for personal use: 100 gallons for one adult and 200 gallons for two adults in a household.
Indiana legalized homebrewing in 1985. However, that only legalized brewing beer in your home and it was still illegal to transport your homebrewed beer. In 1999, Indiana Statute IC 7.1-1-2-3 was passed, legalizing the transportation of homebrew off the premises. This new law allowed for the first Indiana State Fair Brewers’ Competition to be held that same year.
After all of these years, many still debate whether President Carter deserves credit for starting the craft beer revolution; however, one thing is clear: without his signing of H.R. 1337, we may still be waiting for the revolution to begin.
