For decades, craft beer and homebrewing, though separate hobbies, fed off of each other. “This literally helped start the craft beer revolution,” said Julia Herz in a telephone interview. Indeed, many of America’s almost 10,000 breweries were founded by homebrewers, or with homebrewers as head brewer.
For this reason, the professional craft beer community and the homebrewing community have always overlapped greatly. And it may have made sense that the American Homebrewers Association was organized as part of the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American craft brewers.
But the Brewers Association, as a trade association, is mandated with the task of promoting the interests of for-profit commercial breweries, through lobbying efforts, professional education and standards, and consumer education. The American Homebrewers Association fit within that last element of consumer education, but its importance was secondary to the primary objective of the Brewers Association, which was to promote the commercial interests of small and independent breweries. The Brewers Association board is composed of representatives of commercial breweries—even the lone American Homebrewers Association representative on the Brewers Association Board also works for the Washington State Brewers Guild, representing commercial brewers in that state.
In recent years, many homebrewer members of the American Homebrewers Association believed that that the Brewers Association had shifted focus away from promoting homebrewers and their hobby, to concentrate on more pressing economic and business issues facing commercial brewers at a time when small and independent craft breweries were struggling as an industry. Membership in the American Homebrewers Association dwindled from a peak of 46,000 members in 2019 to the 23,000 members it has today.
But last month, the Brewers Association initiated a process by which the American Homebrewers Association will become its own, member-funded, independent 501(c) nonprofit organization. The American Homebrewers Association has also established its own board, composed of well-known homebrewing community leaders.
In an interview with Forbes.com, Bart Watson who assumed the role of president and CEO of the Brewers Association effective January 6, 2025, had said that he wanted to “set up the AHA for more success.” It appears that separation of the American Homebrewers Association is part of that process.
With newfound independence, the American Homebrewers Association can focus on its own priorities regardless of whether they directly align with the interests of the Brewers Association. “I want to focus on boosting membership,” said Herz. “And increase entries in the National Homebrewer Competition.” Membership and competition entries are significant sources of revenue for the American Homebrewers Association.
Herz stated that another priority of the American Homebrewers Association is to revive the Homebrew Con, which was not held in 2024 and will not be held in 2025. That conference had been the largest gathering in the world of homebrewers.
“Homebrewing is a global, generational pastime. There are almost 2,000 homebrew clubs in America, 600 homebrew shops and we have 23,000 members,” said Herz. “People have access to brewing supplies and information like at no other time. It’s a wonderful time to be a homebrewer and with the independence of the AHA , we can further elevate the hobby.”