> I'm with you on this part. It's hard to imagine the boom happening while tinkering was outright illegal! Also, surely the 58 year gap (1920-1978) caused some generational loss of knowledge. The homebrewers of the 80s and 90s must have started from scratch in many ways.
This is absolutely true. Find older homebrewing guides from the 80's, and you'll see practices that would seem amateurish to even complete newbie homebrewers today - using baker's yeast instead of specialized strains, limited hop availability and poor packaging, and protections against contamination during fermentation being limited to a towel over a bucket.
This is absolutely true. Find older homebrewing guides from the 80's, and you'll see practices that would seem amateurish to even complete newbie homebrewers today - using baker's yeast instead of specialized strains, limited hop availability and poor packaging, and protections against contamination during fermentation being limited to a towel over a bucket.