Talk:Homebrewing

Starting a merge

People have been talking about merging for some time. The task perhaps looks harder than what it is. I am starting the merge now, and generally tidying up the article as I go along. The only real concern about the merge would be the weight given to beer homebrewing as compared to other homebrewing - and I will look into that as I do the merge. However, it's looking as though the bulk of the Homebrewing beer article is dealing with material that belongs in Brewing. I will bring in here what looks useful and appropriate, and start discussions on material that I'm not sure about. SilkTork *^YES! 12:52, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

It seems that it may be best to split the homebrewing of beer from the rest of the material on this page, since it is quite distinct and there is a lot of information. I think that it would also be beneficial to have a more detailed section on the homebrewing processes, specifically where they differ from commercial brewing. There are several different techniques that could be discussed. --Nyqlas (talk) 08:25, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

History

The general history of homebrewing is better in this article (Homebrewing) than in the Homebrewing beer article. I see nothing useful to merge. SilkTork *^YES! 13:01, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

I brought over some details on US prohibition. SilkTork *^YES! 13:42, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Beer styles

I'm not entirely convinced that a section on beer styles is needed in an article on homebrewing (beer or otherwise). We have an article on beer style, and a sentence such as "Homebrewers can make beers in a variety of styles", linking people to the article should be sufficient. There is also some discussion on varieties of beer in the main Beer article. I feel this homebrewing article should deal with homebrewing rather than general comments about beer or brewing or wine or cider which are better dealt with in the parent articles. However, other people may think differently. SilkTork *^YES! 13:01, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Ingredients

The basic ingredients for homebrewing beer are the same as for commercial beer, so I have linked to Brewing#Ingredients with this sentence: "Homebrewers can select from ingredients identical to those used in commercial brewing." SilkTork *^YES! 13:42, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Brewing

This section - Homebrewing_beer#Brewing_process - is a bit trickier. Essentially homebrewing is brewing, so a link to that article should be enough. However, there are differences, and there is material within that section that can be brought over as useful to a general article on homebrewing. SilkTork *^YES! 13:45, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Home winemaking

This article claims to be about making wine at home in the same way as beer, although wine gets very little attention. An obvious remedy would be to write about home winemaking in this article, but I question whether the two topics belong in the same article. There is probably sufficient information for two articles (Homebrewing for beer and Home winemaking for wine). Does anyone feel strongly one way or the other?

For example, take the opening sentence: "Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, cider and other beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic...". In my view, homebrewing isn't necessarily the brewing of beer, as in most of the kits no actual brewing is involved (they come pre-brewed). Further, wine and cider are never brewed. In this sense, homebrewing is a misnomer when applied to beer kits and any beverages that aren't brewed like wine or cider. Rename? Split? Better opening paragraph explaining (with references) the term? Eb.eric (talk) 06:55, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

The fact that the "beer homebrewer" and the "home winemaker" use much of the same equipment, retailers, and processes tells me that these should definitely be in an article together. Clifsportland (talk) 22:16, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Tone

I've added a tone tag to the homebrew kit section, as it uses a lot of opinion language relating to quality, and is also very UK centric. - superβεεcat  01:38, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Credible references

The article cites sources from self-published webpages of commercial suppliers who sell equipment who's contents are not research based. Neutrality is also questionable. Cantaloupe2 (talk) 10:41, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Fixing a Pervasive Myth

A pervasive myth/falsehood exists on the Internet that somehow in 1933 something was done that caused beer to be treated differently than wine. The pervasive myth goes something like:

"The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, enacting prohibition in 1919, made homebrewing in the USA illegal. When the 21st Amendment repealed prohibition in 1933, language legalizing home beer making was mistakenly left out (home wine making was legalized at that time)."

Something very similar was in this article and may very well be the source of the myth. This article attributed it to a "clerical error".

First of all, the 21st amendment simply states that the 18th amendment is repealed. There is no language legalizing home wine making or home beer making. In fact there was nothing for any cleric to make any error about.

Second, the different treatment of home wine making and home beer making appears to stem from a 1920 IRS ruling that allowed higher alcohol content for fuit juice and cider but not for beer. See the Wikipedia article on the Volstead Act.

We need to stomp down this myth because it is simply nonsensical and creates a lot of confusion around the history. I have edited the section in question.

The last paragraph in the history section still alludes to the illegality of homebrewing until 1978. This doesn't fit with what you have written and corrected. Any ideas about how to correct that paragraph? Clifsportland (talk) 16:16, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Percentages.

Anyone with time should begin to check this article for percentages. All percentages should be marked as "percent by weight" or "percent by volume". For instance, a beer that is 3.2% alcohol by weight (ABW) has the same alcoholic content as a 4% alcohol by volume (ABV) beer. These are equivalent amounts of alcohol, and cause some confusion. I have appended the correct measure to the percentage in the section referring to the legality of homebrewing in Japan. Other percentages should be marked as well. Clifsportland (talk) 21:58, 14 January 2011 (UTC)