I’ve seen ads in catalogs for kits to make beer at home, like “The Beer Machine”. They come with everything, including ingredients, to make beer. I assume this home brew would have alcohol in it.
I’ve seen nothing in these ads about age verification.
So, what’s to stop someone under 21 from getting one in the mail and making beer. Sounds like an easy way around the law.
Or am I missing something?
Not to make make fun of you, or anything but…!
Someone who lives here in Wisconsin, “The Drunkest place on Earth”(Registered Trademark) should know that there are a million ways to get around the legal drinking age.
Setting up a still or home brewing of wine & beer is, while complicated, one of the best ways. Mostly because it guarentees possession of alcohol, and it’s hard to get caught doing it.
Buying brewing supplies is usually legal for a minor because it’s not alcohol…yet. the seller is only selling you grain and yeast. Nothing illegal about those. It’s what you do with it that counts. Kind of like buying gasoline. Nothing illegal about selling a 19 year old gasoline. When he puts it in a glass bottle with a rag is when the illegal part starts.
Anyway, a great product for making cheap wine/cider is the OZTOP, or the CIDERIZER (same product, different name).
But seeing you’re a minor I absolutely forbid you to purchase either!
http://www.oztops.com.au/index.htm
“The Beer Machine” doesn’t contain alcohol. Alcohol is a potential byproduct of its ingredients, but it’s also the potential byproduct of grapes, peaches and potatoes. And not too many kids are going to wind up with drinkable (or buzzable) beer their first several tries with The Beer Machine. I say sell it to 'em.
As pkbites said, there is no law restricting the sale of barley, hops or yeast to minors. You will never be asked for age verification by a mailorder/online seller.
Brick and mortars are a bit different. If a 14 year old kid walks in and tries to buy a home brew rig, they may well be asked to leave. Intent is still a large part of any law. No brew supply store wants to answer to the parents of a minor they sold ingredients to.
I didn’t started brewing until I was about 22 or so, but never got asked for ID anywhere. My guess is that unless you look very young it shouldn’t be an issue.
I purchased my first homebrewing supplies when I was 18. I specifically asked if I had to be 21, and the store owner said that I didn’t.
I didn’t break any laws until the yeast touched the wort. Of course, that first batch was really nasty. Subsequent efforts have turned out better.
I don’t know about the law in the States, but in the UK it’s certainly not an offence for under-18s to drink alcohol in the privacy of their own home, only to buy it (or attempt to buy it, or have it bought for them). The laws are here if you’re interested.
So I can’t imagine that there’s a problem with the home-brew kits.
I doubt there are any laws restriciting sales of the kits and related ingredients and materials. Once a minor has produced drinkable alcohol, however, I would expect he’s in violation of state and federal laws. Providing it to other minors would compound the violations.
Wel, at least in Texas, as long as the alcohol was consumed in the presence of the parents, it doesn’t look like it should be a problem. I didn’t find anything relating to the brewing of the alcohol though. I imagine similar standards would apply.
I’m willing to bet he has no intention of drinking with his parents.
“Hey, mom, dad. Stop drinking my hooch! get your own still!”
Let me get this straight. Just anyone, even minors, can walk into a grocery store and buy yeast, grapes, grain and sugar? The precursors to chemical intoxicants are freely available? There are no regulations on people leavening dough? Do the U.N. inspectors know about this? We need to launch some Tomahawk cruise missles to somewhere fast.
Beer recipes are pretty simple to follow. I don’t think I ever made a batch of undrinkable beer. I think that kids would get it right the first time.
Either you are incredibly lucky or have a rock gut. You’ve honestly never had an infected batch? Even the buys I know who’ve won in national AHA competitions have had bad batches.
For what it’s worth, malt extract was available during prohibition. It was marketed as an ingredient for all kinds of cooking, including doughnuts.
I don’t make beer, Homebrew, but I’ve never made a bad batch of wine or mead. Occasionally I run into stuck fermentation on the mead, which might lead a first-timer or a kid to screw up the brewing, but any good recipe book should have advice on unsticking it. As long as they’re meticulous about following instructions, I don’t see why youngsters couldn’t make a decent batch of booze pretty easily.
Minors can certainly buy the kits, and even if they couldn’t, they could certainly get the ingredients to make some form of alcohol. I’ve made drinkable wine with nothing but water jugs, apple juice, bread yeast, and a balloon.
Padeye: 
FWIW LadyLion and I were in Geek Central (Fry’s Electronics) and I noticed a sticker on the cash register about age requirements for buying alcohol. “WTF?” says I (quietly, to myself), they don’t sell booze in Fry’s (the eletronics store doesn’t, the Fry’s (same family) grocery chain in Arizona does sell alkyhol). The clerk explained it concerned buying home brewing kits. Don’t know if that’s state law or not. Will check into it.