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Tides & Taps: What Florida Law Says About Brewing Beer at Home
Is it legal to brew beer at home in Florida? Yes, within limits the state spells out in one short statute. Homebrewing is also where a lot of beer lovers first figure out why one beer tastes nothing like the next, and the two numbers brewers reach for first, ABV and IBU, explain a surprising amount of it. Fall officially starts Tuesday evening, Sept. 22, at 8:05 p.m. EDT, per the U.S. Naval Observatory, which makes this a good week to read up.
What Florida's statute actually says
The law is Florida Statutes section 562.165. It lets a person who is not barred from possessing alcohol, in practice an adult of legal drinking age, produce beer "for personal or family use, and not for sale" without paying taxes or fees and without a license. The limit is set per household, per calendar year: 100 gallons when one such adult lives there, 200 gallons when two or more do.
Homebrew may leave the house for personal or family use, including organized affairs, exhibitions and competitions such as tastings or judgings. It may not be sold or offered for sale. Brewing past the limit, or any sale, violates Florida's Beverage Law. The same section sets identical limits for wine.
Federal rules line up. Under 27 CFR 25.205, an adult may brew beer without paying tax, for personal or family use and not for sale, with the same 100- and 200-gallon household caps. Federally, an adult is anyone 18 or older, but where the local minimum age to buy beer is higher, as it is in Florida, you must reach that age before you start brewing. The federal exemption also does not authorize producing beer for use contrary to state or local law. Section 25.206 allows the same trips to tastings and competitions, with the same ban on selling.
This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. Read the sections yourself, and ask an attorney about your own situation.
The two numbers brewers learn first
ABV is alcohol by volume, the share of the beer that is alcohol. When a malt beverage label states its alcohol content, federal labeling rules require it as a percentage of alcohol by volume and generally allow a tolerance of 0.3 percentage points either way, so a label reading 7% may hold anywhere from 6.7% to 7.3%. ABV also tells you how much you are drinking. NIAAA counts one U.S. standard drink as about 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol, so 12 ounces of beer at 5% is one standard drink and 12 ounces at 10% is two.
At home, brewers estimate ABV with a hydrometer. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) lays out the routine: take an original gravity reading before pitching the yeast, then compare it with the final gravity to estimate alcohol content. Don't rush that final reading. Once the beer has visibly finished fermenting, take a reading, then another the next day; if they match, the AHA says you can safely assume fermentation is complete. Hydrometers are calibrated to a set temperature, so read at that temperature or correct for it.
IBU, for International Bitterness Units, is the internationally agreed standard for measuring bitterness in beer, calculated from material that comes from hops. The Oxford Companion to Beer adds the catch: outside the lab, things like roast character, carbonation, water chemistry and leftover sugar can make IBU an unreliable guide to how bitter a beer actually tastes.
The Core Four as a ruler
Our four year-round beers make a handy scale:
- LocAle, Golden Ale, 3.7% ABV / 25 IBU
- Passion Pit, Fruit Ale, 4.2% ABV / 12 IBU
- Sea Cow, Milk Stout, 6% ABV / 32 IBU
- Screamin' Reels, West Coast IPA, 7% ABV / 75 IBU
Passion Pit has the lowest IBU. Screamin' Reels' 75 IBU is more than the other three added together (69). Sea Cow carries more IBU than LocAle, but that number alone won't tell you which one tastes more bitter to you, so taste them side by side and decide. By NIAAA's math, 12 ounces of LocAle is about 0.74 of a standard drink, and 12 ounces of Screamin' Reels is about 1.4.
Your first batch in a Florida house
Heat is the first-batch problem here. The AHA's guide to fermentation temperature notes that brewer's yeast grows happily at 80 to 90°F, but most fermentations that warm, depending on the strain, turn out flavors brewers usually don't want. Generally, esters and fusels climb as the temperature rises. Most yeast has a sweet spot, so follow the range suggested for your strain. If a cool corner is hard to find, the same guide points to kveik, yeast strains from Norway that make clean beer even above 90°F.
Three things to do before September ends
- Read the statute. Section 562.165 is four short subsections, and the source beats any secondhand summary, including ours.
- Find your people. Search the AHA's Find a Homebrew Club directory for a club near you, and plan to sit in on a meeting before you buy any gear.
- Pick a brew day. The AHA's Learn to Homebrew Day is Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. Put it on the calendar now as a target for your first batch.
When you want a reference point for all those numbers, the Core Four are our year-round beers. Ask what's pouring at the taproom, 1701 W. Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, the first building off the I-95 Atlantic Ave exit. Taproom hours: Mon 1–7 · Tue–Thu 12–10 · Fri–Sat 12–11 · Sun 12–8. See what's coming up on our events page. From our founders and the whole Saltwater crew: cheers to your first batch.
Please drink responsibly.