Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, brewing beer at home remained illegal in the United States. This changed in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed HR 1337, which went into effect on February 1, 1979. The legalization of homebrewing enabled what had been an underground hobby to flourish. Homebrew supply shops and homebrew clubs multiplied.
When homebrewing was legalized, Charlie Papazian, an enthusiastic homebrewer since his days as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, founded the journal Zymurgy and the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) to serve as forums for education and communication among homebrewers across the country. Papazian also coined the beloved lines pictured on the front of this coaster, which communicate the easygoing attitude of many homebrewers: "Relax. Don't Worry. Have a Homebrew."
The vast majority of microbrewers and craft brewers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries first learned how to brew beer at home.
