Laws of the Land - Can I Homebrew?

Despite long standing traditions and the life preserving qualities homebrew was once proud of, in some scary places it is still illegal to make your water safe from nasty bacteria by turning it into beer. Since I would never want to encourage illegal activities here at All Grains I figure it might be a good idea to remind my readers of this fact.

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Despite all of its blue laws Massachusetts does allow for the home brewing of beer, cider and wine. As long as you let the tax man know if you go over 100 gallons as an individual or 250 as a household with two adults. I happily reside there in my semi-progressive bubble, however, other more barbaric (read: religiously governed) places have stricter laws. It is best to seek legal information from local authorities but there are a few examples of note below:

Mississippi & Alabama are not known for their progressive politicians and because of that they are the only two states in the U.S. that homebrewing is completely illegal. *UPDATE* Mississippi is passed a law to make it legal!

Although Germany is sometimes incorrectly accused of not allowing homebrewing, you must notify the customs office if you are to foray into the world of fermentation.

Iran, India and Malaysia unfortunately do not allow homebrewing of any kind, however in states with less government intervention it is most likely very common. I seem to remember an episode of No Reservations that was filmed in Malaysia that had some very heavy consumption of a homebrewn potion.