“Regulation of the Day” is actually Ryan’s bag, but alcohol is mine so I’m stealing his title just this once. This regulation is from Alabama, where brewpubs (restaurants that serve beer they make themselves) face many onerous requirements, including these:
Alabama law allows for this special class of breweries, but the legal restrictions on opening and operating these businesses are enormous. This is a large reason why Alabama has only two operating brewpubs while the states surrounding us have dozens.
Let’s take a look at the restrictions on brewpubs in Alabama:
1. Must be located in an historic building
2. Must be located in a wet county that had a brewery prior to 1919
3. You can ONLY sell the beer you brew in the brewpub. You can’t sell to wholesalers or stores
4. Must have a restaurant which seats at least 80
5. Must not brew more than 10,000 barrels of beer annually
There’s no sensible justification for limiting brewpubs to historic buildings in the counties that happened to have breweries operating in 1919. It’s just a very strange law in a state that has a decidedly mixed view of alcohol.
Fortunately Free the Hops, recently successful in bringing higher alcohol beers to Alabama, is on the case pushing the Brewery Modernization Act to improve the state’s beer culture. Read all about it here.
[Via Tom Pearson, aka the Pint Pundit, who will hopefully resume blogging more after getting an enormous flood of two or three new readers from this link back.]
Permalink -
Share/Save
-
Comments (4)
Just when Alabama’s gourmet beer bill was starting to make the state look like a reasonable place to buy alcohol, the local control board has stepped in to ban a wine’s suggestive label:
Wine and scantily clad women may sound like some cad’s idea of a good time, but the combo spells trouble in Alabama, which last week banned the sale of a California-made wine bottle adorned with a naked nymph — helping boost its sales elsewhere in the nation.
Pursuant to the state’s administrative code, the Alabama Beverage Control Board ordered Hahn Family Wines to remove its Cycles Gladiator wines from shelves throughout the state, calling its label “immodest.” According to Hahn president Bill Legion, a small state board in Alabama rejected the artwork last year, but the ruling did not catch Legion’s eye. His apparent defiance of the state’s decision — he claims the paperwork “fell through the cracks” — led to the ban.
“It’s turned out to be a great thing for us,” laughs Legion, who says he’s received calls of support from oenophiles around the world.
The bottle’s eyebrow-raising label was designed in homage to a classic 1890s print ad featuring a lithe, long-haired cyclist clinging to a bicycle shuttling through a starry sky. The belle époque illustration has since become a popular poster, affixed to bike-shop bulletin boards and wannabe road racers’ walls.
Click through to see the label, which I think is perfectly delightful. Maybe Free the Hops will take on prudishness next?
Permalink -
Share/Save
-
Comments (0)
On its last day in session, the Alabama Senate was bogged down in filibusters. That’s good news for smokers, who will retain their freedom to inhale in private businesses. Not so good for gourmet beer drinkers, who will have to keep on waiting for the higher alcohol brews they’re currently denied.
Permalink -
Share/Save
-
Comments (0)
Pat Lynch, the Budweiser representative in Birmingham, has responded to Free the Hops’ call for a boycott on his products. In his defense, he notes that he does support a statewide bill lifting ABV limits, and only opposes local changes in the law. Seems like a weak excuse, but ok. But then he says this:
Lynch said he continues to support a statewide bill raising the ABV limit. He said he might still be willing to discuss that and perhaps a local bill with FTH, but that the call for a boycott wouldn’t help.
“A boycott’s not going to endear me into negotiations,” he said.
People shouldn’t have to endear themselves to the local Bud rep for the right to drink beer that doesn’t suck.
Permalink -
Share/Save
-
Comments (4)
Don’t mind if I do! I’ve been “boycotting” Bud products for as long as I’ve been drinking beer, but Tom Pearson reports that there’s a reason besides taste to do so: In Birmingham, the local distributor is actively opposing legislation that would lift the state’s ban on beers that are high in alcohol or served in bottles larger than a pint — in other words, lots of really, really good beers.
Just brewing Budweiser is crime enough, but actively preventing Alabamans from having the option of something better is even worse. I feel your pain, Tom. Luckily I can soothe mine with a big bottle of Allagash. I’ll be thinking of you.
Get the details at Free the Hops.
Permalink -
Share/Save
-
Comments (4)
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
Follow me on Twitter