Micro Brewing is most often referred to as beer that is brewed in one’s home or small pubs in your neighborhood. In the 1970s, the term was first coined in the UK where it was used to describe traditional cask ale, or smaller units that made their own beer.

For a long time, micro brew was a term used only to characterize the size of a brewery and the amount of volume that it produced. For instance, any breweries that were producing less than 15,000 beer barrels in a year were known as micro breweries. These days, it has become not only a more popular term, but also a more popular beer as it has spread it’s way throughout the Western world, offering unique tasting beer and customized service to small localities.

Many beer connoisseurs would be quick to tell you that the best beer is brewed in microbreweries because of the freedom they have to experiment with recipes. Micro brewed beer often has a distinct flavor that is richer than most of it’s big competitors. The exciting part about it is that every local pub or home micro brewery will have their own twist on brewing beer that ends up offering customers a wide variety of great beer.

The popularity of micro brewing has helped to increase the number of people who brew their own beer from home and often creating groups and regularly scheduled shin-digs based around their beer brewing.
In addition, there is often at least one micro brewing club in your local community that is a great way to socialize among other brewers who share the same passion. The beer tasting is always a hit as well, of course.

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These days, it’s common to head down to the local liquor store and grab yourself a case of your favorite lager, but it takes dedication to learn the techniques required to brew a beer at home that you enjoy as much, if not more.

Alcohol was first discovered and brewed over 7000 years ago and for most people over their lifetime, the only choice was to brew their own at home.
Commercial breweries began to pop up in the 1800s to capitalize on the popularity of alcohol, adding the convenience of buying it already brewed and bottled. Although you would think that this kind of service would completely wipe out the thought of brewing bottled beer yourself at home, it remained a popular trend amongst both hobbyists and connoisseurs.

Once the breweries spread and became the norm, the governments taxed the home brewing kits and supplies heavily in order to maximize the profits for the commercial breweries. However, this all came to an end when prohibition came about, leaving home brewing (albeit illegal) the only way to obtain alcohol. Brewing your own alcohol during the prohibition was very risky, but popular up until it was lifted in 1933 (due to it enabling organized crime).
At first, after the prohibition, only wine was legal to brew at home, until several decades later when beer brewing was again made legal because of an error written in the law.

Obviously, commercial breweries made a major comeback and became a huge business. These days, home brewing is mostly for the dedicated hobbyists and connoisseurs who find pleasure in creating their own recipes. There are many who swear that no commercial beer could ever come close to the taste of a properly brewed beer at home.

Recently, there has been a dramatic rise in interest again with materials and home brewing kits readily available at very affordable prices. There also seems to be a rise in beer brewing communities and general camaraderie on the Internet which may be a contributing factor to it’s regrowth in popularity.

Popularity: 9% [?]