Brewing at home has been with us for many centuries but it changed substantially in 1880 when the prime minister of the day, William Gladstone, decided to raise money and appease the farming lobby by replacing a tax on malt with an excise duty on the finished product. This meant that home brewers, even those who brewed beer for their own consumption, became regulated and inspected and had to pay a licence fee. Over the years, this led to many people being dragged into court and fined.
Eventually, it was decided that the prosecutions were not worth the effort, although it was not until 1963 that the 1880 regulations were abolished. This prompted a growth in home brewing, fuelled by the availability of brewing ingredients and equipment on the high street. In particular, Edme’s famous malt extract was very popular because it negated the need for full mashing. So buoyant was the market that the Daily Mirror estimated that, in 1978, there were around two million home brewers. The enthusiasm did not last however and the market declined, just leaving the diehards. These remaining home brewers however became more sophisticated, aided not least by a growth in the number of home brewing books that provided both recipes and tips to make good beer. To support this, in 1995, James McCrorie founded the UK Craft Brewing Association. He avoided the term home-brewing because, as he told Boak & Bailey in 2013, “it had come to mean, in Britain, a can of crap and a kilo of sugar.”
In due course, home brewing came to play a key part in the growth of British independent brewers. Many of those who went on to found award winning breweries, such as Evin O’Riordain of Kernel and Andy Parker of Elusive, started off as home brewers. Indeed, Andy went on to co-author CAMRA’s Modern Homebrewer book.
It is estimated that there are currently around 1.5 million home brewers and they are becoming more technologically savvy, with some using automated brewing techniques and smartphone-controlled systems. The increased knowledge and care being taken has certainly paid dividends as regards the quality of the beers in both CAMRA and SIBA home brew competitions.
London has its very own home brewing group, the London Amateur Brewers, who are celebrating their 20th birthday next year. They run a number of competitions, ranging from their ‘Open’, which is for any beer style and attracts over 200 entries, to ones that are ‘type specific’. This includes their annual ‘Lager than Life’ competition, which features a whole range of different style lagers from Vienna and Californian Common to Pils and Helles. Lucas Stolarczyk, the organiser of the competition said, “The main idea behind the competition was because many home brewers are afraid of brewing lager.” It is obvious that this initiative has worked. Judged at the Pillars’ Brewery in Walthamstow, who are lager specialists, the quality of the competition beers was as good as anything tasted at a commercial beer judging. Furthermore, the competition’s good reputation attracts judges from all over Europe. The winner on the day was a German Pils called Why Not, brewed by Mikko Salo. It was beautifully crisp with a good balance of malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness.
There is no membership fee to join the London Amateur Brewers who, like CAMRA, are a volunteer organisation. They meet every month, alternating between on-line and face to face, when home brewers can bring their beers along to share and get feedback. LAB welcome both experienced brewers and novices. For more information visit here. To find out more about the history of home brewing, I recommend Boak and Bailey’s article here.
Christine Cryne