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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 11, 2005 Brew-it-yourself fun By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings It was January 1979 when the federal government re-legalized homebrewing. A little over a quarter-century later, homebrewing specialty shops, festivals, conferences and competitions draw in an estimated 1.5 million people who have tried to concoct their favorite beers at home since the 59-year homebrewing ban was lifted, according to an article on CNN.com Charles Amos, owner of Central Point's Herman's Home Brew, stands by vats of flavored malts used in beer making. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Two stores in the Rogue Valley sell homebrewing equipment and the supplies to make pre-packaged brews or create a personal recipe for any type of beer. "We're a real full-service homebrew shop," said Herman Amos, the owner of Herman's Homebrews in Central Point, who began making beer at home as a teenager in 1969. "We have the stuff so we can make stuff, anything, any way they want. We have all the malts, the grains, the hops and they can make anything any way they want." Like the growth of microbrew popularity, the homebrewing fad of the early 1990s has blossomed into a national trend. Amos opened his shop four years ago to cater to homebrewers who wanted to get creative. Herman's doesn't sell pre-packaged, or "canned," kits. "I get a blend of everything from first-time beer and wine makers to people who dabble in it occasionally to the devoted," Amos said. "It goes the entire gamut." Homebrewing, which dates back more than 5,000 years according to information published online by the American Homebrewers Association, was outlawed by Prohibition in 1920. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the ban on homebrewing remained intact. In 1978, the U.S. Congress passed a law that gave home beer brewers the same rights as those who made wine at home. The law went into effect at the beginning of 1979, legalizing the underground brewing movement that had gone on for decades. Although Herman's is the only homebrew specialty shop for "a hundred miles, at least," Amos estimates, Black Bird Shopping Center in Medford stocks the homebrewing tools because Lee Hobbs, who originally started the store, had an interest in homebrewing. "We've had all the basic supplies and stuff for years," Black Bird employee Stan Parish said. "We actually have some of the pre-done kits. We also have grain malt, so if somebody has a recipe or if they want to grind their own and boil their own, they can." With all of the equipment sanitized and the ingredients, brewing a batch of beer only takes about an hour. A basic ale recipe calls for five to seven pounds of hopped pale malt extract syrup, five gallons of water, one to two ounces of hops if desired, a packet of dry ale yeast and corn syrup. Once the ingredients have been combined properly to make the wort, or the mixture, it is left in the fermentor for at least two weeks before a simple ale is ready to be bottled. According to Amos, the most popular home brews tend to be pale ales, although home brewers can create basically any flavor of beer they choose to. "There seems to be more and more people getting into it," Parish said. "With a lot of these little microbrew beers and specialty stuff a lot of people have gotten a taste of basically what specialty beers can be." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's Slippers men's slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Memory Foam Mattress college loans alternative student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation trillion cut diamonds Currancy Exchange Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams