Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed domestically for thousands of years before its commercial production although its legality has varied according to local regulation. Homebrewing is closely related to the hobby of home distillation, the production of alcoholic spirits for personal consumption, but home distillation is generally more tightly regulated.
The Boston Beer Company is an American brewery founded in 1984 by James "Jim" Koch and Rhonda Kallman. Boston Beer Company's first brand of beer was named Samuel Adams after Founding Father Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot. Since its founding, Boston Beer has started several other brands, and in 2019 completed a merger with Dogfish Head Brewery.
The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is a non-profit organization formed in 1985 to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. The BJCP certifies and ranks beer judges through an examination and monitoring process.
The U.S. state of Oregon is home to more than 200 breweries and brew pubs that produce a large variety of beer.
Anchor Brewing Company was a brewery on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1896, the brewery underwent several changes in location and ownership throughout its history. After years of declining sales due to competition with larger breweries, Anchor was purchased by Frederick Louis “Fritz” Maytag III in 1965, preventing its closure. The brewery operated at its Potrero Hill location from 1979 and was one of the last remaining producers of steam beer, a variety of beer trademarked by the company.
Ninkasi was the Mesopotamian goddess of beer and brewing. It is possible that in the first millennium BC she was known under the variant name Kurunnītu, derived from a term referring to a type of high quality beer. She was associated with both positive and negative consequences of the consumption of beer. In god lists, such as the An = Anum list and the Weidner god list, she usually appears among the courtiers of the god Enlil, alongside deities such as Ninimma and Ninmada. She could also be paired with Siraš, a goddess of similar character, who sometimes was regarded as her sister. A possible association between her and the underworld deities Nungal and Laṣ is also attested, possibly in reference to the possible negative effects of alcohol consumption.
Charles N. Papazian is an American nuclear engineer, brewer and author. He founded the Association of Brewers and the Great American Beer Festival, and wrote The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (1984). He is the longtime former president (1979–2016) of the Brewers Association. He is also the creator of the National Pie Day, a celebration of pies which is celebrated on January 23, Papazian's birthday.
George J. Fix was an American mathematician who collaborated on several seminal papers and books in the field of finite element method. In addition to his work in mathematics, Fix was a beer and homebrewing enthusiast and educator, as well as the author of several books about brewing. He died of cancer in 2002.
The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group representing America's small and independent craft brewers. It is the largest competition in the beer industry and has been described as "the Olympics of beer." According to americancraftbeer.com, "Winning a World Beer Cup is like winning a Grammy or an Oscar…it brings the world’s attention to even the smallest brewery’s doorstep…and like a hit song or film, it can make a career." The cup was founded by Association of Brewers president Charlie Papazian in 1996 and was awarded every two years until 2022, and has been held every year since then. The competition is held in conjunction with the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America.
The U.S. state of Vermont is home to over 100 breweries, microbreweries, nanobreweries, and brewpubs that produce a wide variety of beer.
Otto Frederick Eckhardt was an American brewer, homebrewing advocate, and writer. Eckhardt is best remembered as a pioneer in the field of beer journalism, publishing a series of articles and books on the topic, including the seminal 1989 tome, The Essentials of Beer Style. At the time of his death in 2015, Eckhardt was memorialized as "the Dean of American beer writers".
Gregory "Greg" John Noonan was an American brewing expert who wrote several published books on brewing. His writing credits include Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home - And Microbrewers (1986) which he updated in 1996 and changed the title to New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home - And Microbrewers. He also wrote Scotch Ale (1993) for the Classic Beer Styles Series from Brewers Publications. He co-authored Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers Handbook (1997) with Mikel Redman and Scott Russell.
Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse.
The U.S. Open Beer Championship is an international brewing competition. The event, which is open to professional breweries and award-winning home brewers, is held in late June, with the winners announced in July.
Dragonmead is a U.S. microbrewery, meadery and brewpub founded by Earl Scherbarth, Larry Channell, and Bill Wrobel in January 1997. The small brewery produces many varieties of beer, wine, and mead, and has received awards including gold medals at the World Beer Cup.
Annie Johnson is a brewer who won the American Homebrewers Associations' Homebrewer of the Year award in 2013. She was the first woman in thirty years, and the first African American person ever, to win the award. In 2012, she won Pilsner Urquell's Master Homebrewer Competition held in San Francisco, where Master Brewer Vaclav Berka ) said the beer tasted like he was home. After an extensive career with the California State Legislature she began working for PicoBrew, a product development company in Seattle, WA that specialized in automated brewing equipment. In addition to that work, she is a Nationally ranked judge for the Beer Judge Certification Program and serves as proctor and exam grader. Shortly after she had heard about winning the AHA 2013 award she quickly accepted her job offer to be part of PicoBrew as Chief Brewing Office and recipe developer. She's an active member of Pink Boots Society which promotes women in the beverage industry, and as an elected member of American Homebrewers Association’s Governing Committee. She is a regularly featured contributor to Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine.
Rhinegeist Brewery is a craft brewery and craft cidery based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company also sells their ciders under the name Cidergeist, using an alternative apple-shaped skull logo. The brewery's 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) taproom and production facility is located in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, and occupies the former, pre-Prohibition bottling plant of Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. Rhinegeist operates an additional shipping, storage and innovation brewing facility in Cincinnati's Camp Washington neighborhood.
Carol Stoudt is an American brewmaster who founded Stoudts Brewing Company in Adamstown, Pennsylvania in 1987. In addition to owning the company, she was the brewmaster, salesperson, and mentor. She was one of the first female brewmasters since Prohibition in the United States and the nation's first female sole proprietor of a brewery in 1987.
F.H. Steinbart is a homebrew supply store on SE 12th Avenue in Portland, Oregon. It is the oldest homebrew supply store in the country and helped nurture the vibrant Pacific Northwest craft-brewing scene.
