"Home brewing" typically refers to the brewing of beer and similar alcoholic beverages (and sometimes soft drinks) on a very small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other assorted generally non-commercial reasons. Alcohol has been brewed domestically throughout its 7000-year history. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the history of homebrewing was circumscribed by taxation and prohibition, largely... full article at wikipedia