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WikdWaze

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Aug 2, 2004
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I had a disturbing thought tonight as I was driving home. With the growing popularity of homebrewing, how long do you think it will last? I can easily see in the not-too-distant future some enterprising youngsters discovering that it's perfectly legal and quite simple for them to order all the equipment they need to brew their own alcohol. I'm sure there are already some that do just this. All it takes is for one kid to get hurt/maimed/killed while drunk on homemade hooch. Before you know it the media is doing reports on the dangers of readily accesible brewing supplies, parents groups are up in arms about how the government can let their kids have this capability, and other activist groups jump into the fray talking about the evils of homemade alcohol and the need to prohibit such behavior. Soon enough the government will step in to "save" the day. It may start small, like requiring age verification for sales of brewing supplies, or they may put an outright ban on home brewing just like they've done on distillation.

I'm not trying to be an alarmist here. It may take decades for something like this to happen. I will say that anybody who thinks it can't/won't happen is not much a student of history.
 
been there. done that. A friend of mine and I have been making about two batches of beer a year ever since we were high school. It wasn't long after he started driving that he found out about home brewing and where the local home brew shops were. I remember going with him once to one "Store" run out of some guys house. that was probibly 86 or 87. I think the worst thing we ever made was when he got the bright idea to just take corn sugar and water and add yeast. We didn't knwo about rackign off the yeast so it really tasted like crap. We didn't so that again. One thing that never failed though. Out of all the batches we made at his house when his folks were gone, as soon as we got the place cleaned up and everything put way they would walk in. we never had a minute to spare. I guess thats why we did it at my house more often than we did at his place. My folks didn't care. Beer was always in the house anyway so I guess they figured that there were alot of other things I could be doing and at least we were in a place where they could see what we were doing. even with all that beer I've helped make over the years, I still can't stand the taste of it. go figure.

Bryon
 
Bryon said:
My folks didn't care. Beer was always in the house anyway so I guess they figured that there were alot of other things I could be doing and at least we were in a place where they could see what we were doing. even with all that beer I've helped make over the years, I still can't stand the taste of it. go figure.

Bryon
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My folks were the same way. They helped us buy beer on many occasions. They knew we were going to get it anyhow, and at least we were at home and out of trouble.

We used to ride in the back of my dad's pickup truck too, that's illegal in places now because of activists.

I never wore a helmet when I rode my bike.

Everybody had a pocket knife at school.

Before long we'll only be allowed to eat oatmeal because anything spicier might cause an ulcer.
 
Yeah, no kidding. I once got suspended from school for having matches but they didn't care about the 3 inch pocket knife I had on me at the time.

My stupid kid trick growing up was to pour an ice coald beer into a frosted glass with out putting a head on it. that and do mixed drinks. i was bar tending by the time I was 12. I could make just about anything my folks drank. If I didn't hate smokey places so much, that could have been me instead of Tom Cruse staring in the movie "Cocktail"

I guess the mane thing is that alcohol was always there and and my folks let me have a rum a coke every new years eve and a beer once in a while. I never liked the beer but I really liked the Volka we mixed with. I guess since it was always there I never had the need to go out and expariment with it.

Here's an idea. lower the legal drinking age to 9 and let the kid wake up with a killer hang over a time or two or let them drink themself sick. chances are they wont do that again soon. this stuff makes your head spin and gets you sick. who needs it. :P

just a though.
 
I like that drinking age idea ;D I probably got everybody beat when it comes to youngest drunk. I followed my grand-dad around finishing the last little gulp of his Iron City beers one day at the ripe old age of one. They got hours of amusement out of watching me crawl five feet and topple over on my side :P That probably counts as child abuse nowadays.
 
Yeah, no kidding. The way I was raised, anything that didnt' kill you outright was fare game. By the time i was too big to beat it was not alowed in schools anymore. I had my fare share of swats from teachers and then some. I think one of my biggest mistakes the last time I got a swat from a teacher was standing up and asking the teacher if she was done yet. It didnt hurt. she was just wasting her time and mine. I was annoying her by not being hurt more then she was annoying me by beating my butt with a pattle. then i got home and Mom got that call from the teacher. Mom didn't get tired as fast as the teacher did. We still havent' gotten to the mistake. the next day the teacher asked me in in front of the class how bad I got it from my mom the night before. I stook up and told her I could show her but she'd probibly like it too much and that there were laws against that sort of teather/student relationship. the class roared with laughter. I got sent to the princables office. he didn't like me smarting off in class, he also didn't like the teacher swating me. but since Mom didnt' have aproblem with it he wasn't goign to do anything about it. he let mom take care of it when I got home that night. If I wasn't already brused from the two I got the day before this time wouldn't have been nearly as bad. I got the point. Don't push the teachers buttons in front of everyone in the class. one on one was OK. Just don't make her look stupid in front of everyone. She didn't neen any help in that respect.

It's really tough growing up being the only one with a since of humor. ;D
 
Prohibition has been tried and it failed. I think that is still recent enough to be in our nation's collective memory. Wine/mead homebrewing has only been legal since 1979.

It is far easier for a kid to buy beer than make it. If a kid wants to go through the effort to learn to make beer, more power to them. Maybe they'll learn to appreciate the good stuff, at least. :)
 
ScottS said:
Prohibition has been tried and it failed. I think that is still recent enough to be in our nation's collective memory. Wine/mead homebrewing has only been legal since 1979.
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Here! here! ScottS
I'll second that. Government can't stop hard drugs through legislation and enforcement. Government can't even stop murder. Now that we tasted homebrew, a little wine and mead would be next to impossible to stop.
Joe

P.S. Before they would even try. They would try and tax it first and then it would be legal again. ;)
 
Jmattioli said:
P.S. Before they would even try. They would try and tax it first and then it would be legal again. ;)
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Now THAT'S the absolute truth ;D I'm surprised they haven't just started taxing drugs, they'd make enough money to do away with income tax.
 
Actually, they do. If they can't get someone on possession of illegal substances like Marijuana, but they can prove that the person has been selling it, they can be gotten on tax evasion and imprisoned...
 
ScottS said:
Prohibition has been tried and it failed. I think that is still recent enough to be in our nation's collective memory. Wine/mead homebrewing has only been legal since 1979.
:)
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IIRC, winemaking became illegal immeidately after Prohibition ended.

Phil
 
WikdWaze said:
Before long we'll only be allowed to eat oatmeal because anything spicier might cause an ulcer.
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Rent 'Demolition Man' with Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock.


Phil
 
Talon said:
Actually, they do. If they can't get someone on possession of illegal substances like Marijuana, but they can prove that the person has been selling it, they can be gotten on tax evasion and imprisoned...
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That's what they busted Al Capone for even.


Rent 'Demolition Man' with Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock.


Phil
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An absolute classic ;D And I think it's a prophetic film, unfortunately. We're becoming a nation that relies on the government to protect us from ourselves.
 
I'm 19 now and I've been brewing for about 6-7 months now. My dads not fine about it, he says I'm stupid and should just buy my beer. I point out the junk he drinks tastes like water and hops and he gets pissed and calls me disrespectful. My mom is fine with it.

Also they both know I will never drink to the point of impairment,
 
Rurouni85Samurai said:
I'm 19 now and I've been brewing for about 6-7 months now. My dads not fine about it, he says I'm stupid and should just buy my beer. I point out the junk he drinks tastes like water and hops and he gets pissed and calls me disrespectful. My mom is fine with it.

Also they both know I will never drink to the point of impairment,
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If drinking to impairment had been a highschool sport, I'd have been captain of the varsity team. Calling your dads beer horsepiss is disrespectful? Seems to be taking it a little personal. Wait till you find the perfect recipe, then let him compare his swill to the wonderous elixir you've created. That should bring him 'round.
 
Mead is what convinced me that prohibition is absolutely imposible to enforce. Joe Mattioli's Ancient Mead recipe, to be precise. A bit of honey, a bit of water, bread yeast and a jug. All components are readily available.

Not much drug law is enforcable, when it comes right down to it. My mom, a retired teacher and productive member of society, grows pot in the back yard. Hurts nobody. It grows wild in every province, state and teritory in North America. Nothing that is so easy to obtain will every be iradicated.

This isn't the place to talk about drug politics, but homebrew is here to stay. To paraphrase a great man, the kitchens and gardens of the nations are none of the governments' business.
 
That reminds me of a T-shirt I saw a few years ago when I was down in Nogales. IT was a picture of a Tequila worm drinking a bottle of Jose' and pissing into a bottle of Corona.

From what I remember of the taste of beer, that sounds about right.
 
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