Many seem to believe the process of making beer is so infernally complicated it can only be done by ancient European guild members or a team of guys in white lab coats – and so, what you’re serving them will doubtless render them blind and insane. Or it’s strictly illegal – and now they’re party to a federal crime. Or it’s so expensive you might as well be drinking Dom Perignon. None of these things is true. In fact, home brewed ale has been an English farmhouse tradition, which dates back centuries, if not millennia. It was the daily beverage of hard working, simple, thrifty people.