With the passing of , it is perhaps worth mentioning one small legacy from his presidency: the legalization of homebrewing and the craft beer revolution.
In 1978, President Carter signed , which made amendments to the Internal Revenue Code. H. R. 1337 was primarily aimed at taxes on trucks and buses but an amendment added by (D-CA) created an exemption to excise taxes for people making beer and wine at home. Before this, anyone making any amount of beer or wine had to pay excise taxes on it, but there was no mechanism for homebrewers to do so. This effectively made it impossible to make beer or wine at home (at least legally).
The Cranston amendment allowed an adult to produce up to 200 gallons of beer for personal or family use without having to pay taxes. This set off a boom in hobby homebrewing, and many of those enthusiastic home brewers would go on to create craft beer and microbrewery businesses. According to , in 1979 when the amendment went into effect there were 90 breweries in the U.S.: today there are about 9,000.
It's not clear why Senator Cranston introduced his amendment, which was cosponsored by Rep. William Steiger (R-Wisconsin). He may have worked with a ºÙºÙÊÓƵ professor on the legislation, but I cannot confirm this.
Today, the offers undergraduate and graduate classes in malting and brewing, as well as a and related short courses through ºÙºÙÊÓƵ Continuing and Professional Education.
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Source: (Washington Beer Blog)