Is It Illegal to Make Your Own Beer or Wine in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts is known for a lot of great things. History, sports, delicious food, beautiful beaches, and majestic mountains. While there are many beautiful things about living in Massachusetts, it can feel like there are many rules and regulations about, well basically EVERYTHING, including something that has deep roots in the Bay State: Beer.

The roots of beer in Massachusetts run so deep that most credit the commonwealth with housing the United States' first bar. Boston Magazine says the first bar in the country opened in Boston on March 4, 1634.

In 2019, Massachusetts was home to 828 bars and 1,645 beer, wine, and liquor stores. And don't forget to add in the 114 colleges and beer-guzzling Boston sports fans. Even though there are plenty of places for you to consume or buy alcohol in Massachusetts, you guessed it, there are also plenty of rules and regulations to go along with them. Massachusetts has some of the strictest alcohol regulations in the country, including restrictions on happy hours, drink specials, sales of "to go" liquor, and many, many more.

So if you want to go out and consume alcohol in Massachusetts, we've got you covered, but if you want to make your own beer (or wine) at home, that's a whole different ball game.

Is It Illegal to Make Your Own Beer or Wine in Massachusetts?

According to American Home Brewers Association, Massachusetts law Part I, Title XX, Chapter 138, permits the manufacture or storage of alcoholic beverages by a person for their own private use.

Massachusetts' Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission says production per year is limited to 100 gallons per adult per year, with a maximum of 200 gallons per year if the household has two or more adults of drinking age living there.

In layman's terms, it means it is perfectly legal for you to brew your own alcohol in Massachusetts, as long as you're 21 of course, AND as long as you don't sell it. If you do plan to distribute or sell your home that's an entirely different ball game that involves a ton of licensing.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.