One For Old-timers, Why Did Home Brewing Get Legalized?

[Tony M]

I'm interested in how the boys used to do this back then. Was there malt extract available? I gather they wouldn't be all grainers?

I can only go back to 1963 when I used 5 ingredients. The recipe was 2lb cane sugar, 2lb Fauldings malt extract (cheaper at the grocers than the chemist), 2oz hops, a tablespoon of dried "brewers yeast" and four gallons of water. I'm damned if I can remember boiling anything (it was many thousands of drinks ago). I think I just mixed everything in a couple of buckets with a teatowel covering to keep some of the flies out. It was bloody awful, but we drank it and said it was beaut!

 

[barry2]

Amazing stuff, Barry, than you very much. Without wanting to associate you too closely to the subject line, I was kind of hoping that you might bob up and help out with this.

Are you still winning all the comps or is it getting a bit crowded at the top these days?

Cheers

Steve

Mistaken identity Steve.I have been homebrewing for about three years and brew a few kits and more partials to 23 litres and all grains to 13 litres which is about the limit for my 12 litre stovetop stockpot and 15 litre esky.
This thread and links have provided fascinating reading
The removal of the restriction on brewing higher alcohol beer did not get a mention in Whitlam's 1972 policy speech although the removal of the wine excise tax did.

http://whitlamdismissal.com/speeches/72-11...39;s-time.shtml

The joint Whitlam/Barnard cabinet made many decisions in their few weeks with no mention of beer but the wine excise tax was removed

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=1391

With the removal of the wine excise tax and people such as Geoff Wills who is mentioned in an earlier link giving lots of reasons ,why people should be allowed to brew higher alcohol beer , to their contacts in the new Labour goverment that Government apparently decided it was time.I don't know if the brewing industry was applying any pressure against brewing of higher alcohol beer but then they may not have been supporters of the Labour party.

The Amateur Winemakers and Brewers Club of Adelaide at

www.adelaideferment.org.au

state

"An important early action of the Club was to join with others in 1973 to persuade the Government to permit the home brewing of beer of any strength; until then home brewing of beer over 2% alcohol was illegal."

They have a contact address on their website so they may be able to find some of their persuasion arguments in their archives


Happy brewing

Barry

 

[floppinab]

it was time.

:lol:

 

[Steve Lacey]

Mistaken identity Steve.I have been homebrewing for about three years and brew a few kits and more partials to 23 litres and all grains to 13 litres which is about the limit for my 12 litre stovetop stockpot and 15 litre esky.

Ah sorry. Jumped the gun, I did. I'm sure Barry C, the most winningest home brewer in the land c.1998 to 200? is on this forum somewhere. Hope he is still around and in good form.

This thread and links have provided fascinating reading

I agree. I really appreciate the input everybody has given. I got lost for a couple of hours in that site with all the old newspaper clippings.

The Amateur Winemakers and Brewers Club of Adelaide ... have a contact address on their website

Yes, I contacted them and received a nice reply and they are referring it around the club to see what they can dig up.

So how does one get home brew supplies in Japan?

There are a few ways. (1) As one respondent suggested, we import directly by mail order, though more often from the States than Australia, and this mainly applies to bulk hop orders that we split up. We also did a bulk order of yeast from White Labs once, but Japanese customs nearly cooked it and we had to get a replacement lot sent (2) Hand carry back from OS trips, especially for bulkier equipment. I have had a friend bring me a Beerbelly plate chiller, and one bloke here has a Mashmaster malt mill. (3) We have found a wholesaler for malt from whom we can buy 25 kg bags of Weyermann, Crisp, or Great Western malt for around 4,500 yen (~A$55) plus $10 for delivery for 1-2 bags (this is actually pretty darn cheap!) -- ordering in Japanese only! (3) Like distilling goods in Oz, it is not illegal to sell the ingredients, so there are a couple of on-line suppliers, but after covering freight costs at the small volumes they import in, the prices are difficult to swallow. But good for smaller orders, perishables and so on.

 

[caleb]

Sorry to take things OT, but apart from a few die-hard hobbyists, why would anyone in Japan home brew?

If you could afford the space to brew, you would have enough money to drink whatever you like!

You have a very cliched and inaccurate view of Japan...

My Japanese father-in-law just gave me a 1/4 acre of "spare" land to build a house on. It was being used as a rice paddy but he was saving it for his daughter in the long term.

The builder apologized profusely that it used to take 1 day to get building approval for a house, but now the laws have become much more difficult and it could take up to 1 or 2 weeks to get approval... h34r: Try THAT in Australia...

Japan is actually mostly wilderness and forest still! (Or at worst timber plantations). It's just up in the mountains, where no-one wants to live, except a few ancient villages consisting of about 5 self sufficient 80 year old mushroom farmers!

But, yes, Japanese are VERY law abiding and generally don't see the need to question existing laws, so in some ways the place seems very progressive, eg, beer vending machines and drinking a beer on the train, but in others can seem like a conservative 1950's style nightmare where the 60's never actually happened... e.g. marijuana culture is virtually non-existant over there, and prohibition strictly enforced, yet at the same time you can buy a 1kg bag of hemp seeds from the pet shop for around 200 yen (about 2-3 dollars).

As I will be living in Japan iin about 6 months too, I am also interested in home brewing over there... technically breaking the law... but it seems to be in the "dilute your final brew down with 50 litres of water to make it legal, wink wink" category at the moment. Supplies ARE available, at least...

As for change, that would be great, but Japan DOES seem to have a great deal of "cultural inertia" and they really don't give a stuff what some gaijin has to say...

 

[muckanic]

The removal of the restriction on brewing higher alcohol beer did not get a mention in Whitlam's 1972 policy speech although the removal of the wine excise tax did.

So I wonder how many immigrants were making their own wine illegally (or at least excise-free) in that era? Sourcing ingredients wouldn't have been nearly as much of a problem as with beer. I assume part of the reason for the 2% law was to allow people to make their own lemonades and ginger beers, employing natural bottle carbonation. Ah, the memories of those bottle bombs that used to go off under the house every summer! In fact, my first foray into brewing at a very tender age involved taking over the ginger beer duty from Mum, and accidentally spilling a couple of extra kilos of sugar into the brew. B)

 

[Infinitee]

It seems near-crazy that the only difference between a legal and illegal brew prior to the law change was a kilo or two of sugar.

A law as unenforceable as a tv license, illicit plant material possession or the law (new to me) that you can't have more than X (4?) dogs on a rural property.
Who do they think they are? hehe

I must say, I have found this thread invaluable and evocatively interesting, both to learn of the drinking/brewing/prohibiting culture of japan and australia.
A great many thanks, a bookmark, a BUMP and profound appreciation. :icon_cheers:

 

[Steve Lacey]

Infinitee, glad you liked the thread.

A little update from Japan. As you may or may not be aware, depending on how much attention you pay to world news, Japan had a change of government a couple of months ago. The first time there has been a complete change of government since the war. Yes, THAT war. There have been a couple of hiccups where the dominant LDP needed a coalition to maintain a tenuous grip on power, but basically it has been at the helm all this time. The new government of the Democratic Party of Japan, or DPJ, has a social progressive leaning, and one of the first things it did after coming to power was to cancel a bunch of infrastructure projects (mainly dams) that were of questionable need and had strong local opposition. The PM, Yukio Hatoyama even addressed the UN in English (not very good English, but at least he had a go, unlike every Japanese PM of the past). It seems the DPJ is determined to modernize Japan in many areas where it lags behind the US and European countries. This is really a golden opportunity to try and agitate for change to home brewing laws, albeit that this would be a long way down the government's list of priorities. So we have had some meetings with Japanese home brewers and have started some research and letter/petition drafting and identified some people with links to new MPs to lobby directly. The wheels turn slowly, but they are turning. I'll report back when there has been some progress.

 

[avaneyk]

In fact, my first foray into brewing at a very tender age involved taking over the ginger beer duty from Mum, and accidentally spilling a couple of extra kilos of sugar into the brew. B)

That's how I start my brewing as well - aged around 15. The recipe I used was the same as the one my uncle used when he was a kid... :beer:

 

[bum]

Best of luck with that, Steve! Please let us know how you guys get on.

 

[Infinitee]

That sounds like great news for the political scene there, Steve.
HB laws aside, a governmental change is as good as a holiday.

With all the money saved on massive, unnecessary infrastructure projects .. surely they don't need to tax homebrewers at any level anymore?

A long shot, but don't give up.
Tastes will change.

 

[Andyd]

The court was told that Read's
home brew had proof spirit
strength of 26.5 per cent. Ordin-
ary beer strength was 7.51 per
cent.

Did anyone else pick up on the ABV of "Ordinary beer" ??

 

[dr K]

from some-one who actualy was around at the time and, fom early 1973 lived in Canbeera, indeed still does.
Mr Lacey, and I am certain that Mr Staun will agree with me, whilst the Whitlam Goverment made homebrew legal, it was no part of the raft of leglislation that the duumvirate pushed through in those heady days of Decmber 1972. Without checking I reckon it was probably pushed through by the greatest legislator/ AG that this country has ever had, the late, great Lionel Murphy.
Crash through or Crash and cry (in the shed) a little tear for our little mate, who apart from (probably) legalsising home brewing, stripped out the RCC control over divorce laws, f'd off the eye for an eye principle by abolishing state sanctioned murder, pissed ASIO off, and really really pissed the frogs off by stopping them blowing up pacific atolls with neuclear bombs (for a while anyway). So Mr Garrett..where are you now....tip your hat and your glass for Lionel Murphy.

K