What’s next for FTH
Free the Hops successfully lobbied for the Gourmet Beer Bill raising the alcohol limit of beer sold in Alabama from 6% to 13.9%, allowing for about 98% of the beer brewed in the world to be sold here (in theory).
I say ‘in theory’ because some beer is packaged in containers too large to be sold in Alabama (e.g., fancy Euro-beer in 750 ml wine-sized bottles).
FTH is a truly non-partisan grassroots organization with a track record of getting one bill passed in three years (which is not bad IMO). Elected officials and candidates across the State were routinely asked to support FTH and the effectiveness of the group has been proven. Young people who may not have been politically active have been educated (for real, as in real life) about the political process. I’ve heard strangers talk to each other about which committee or which house passed the bill (as a political junkie I find that fascinating).
So what’s next?
Should FTH fold up the beer tents and declare success? Or should the group take on another campaign to improve Alabama’s beer laws? Some people have suggested that FTH take on ‘important’ causes like immigration or focus on improving wine and liquor laws. But you know what? A group founded to change beer laws should stay true to it’s mission.
Free the Hops can only be expected to lobby for changes to Alabama’s beer laws – and there are many areas that could be improved: container size (as mentioned earlier, but note that some people think that 40s would make that a hard sell, especially in an election year); brewfest laws (codify existing practices); brew pubs (remove historical location restrictions); breweries (allow tap rooms); and licensing (all kinds of stuff).
The next project will be decided soon at a state-wide FTH meeting – I hope that FTH considers a long term strategy and focuses on enabling legislations (my choice - brewfests – to secure a funding stream) so that we don’t have to do anything twice.
I have a suggestion for an Alabama law you can bring into the 21st century: home brewing. Under Federal law, individuals can make up to 250 gallons of wine and beer for their own consumption. There are no taxes on or regulation/government control of the process.
In Alabama, on the other hand, no wine or beer may be made in the home without going through the full regulatory process and paying the requisite taxes. Even possession of more than 4 bottles of homemade wine is a crime.
So how about lobbying to bring Alabama’s laws on homemade beer and wine in line with the Federal laws?
That even fits in nicely with the name of your group: Free the Hops!
If you need an economic benefit to justify it to lawmakers, other states have organizations for home-brewers, and hold festivals where they compete to see who makes the best beer/wine. Surely such festivals would generate additional economic activity…
Some Alabama Beer Movement History:
Free the Hops put a bill up in 2007 that would have completely legalized any brewing of beer, wine, mead, or cider for personal use. It also explicitly allowed the entering of competitions, tastings, etc. It did, obviously, prohibit any profit from homebrewing.
The bill didn’t make it very far because we were primarily concerned with our flagship issue at the time – the ABV issue. After the 2007 session, a group of homebrewers informed us that they intended to work with the AHA on the homebrew issue and asked us not to introduce our own bill. They introduced a bill in 2008 through Senator Dixon and we focused solely on ABV.
The movement is called Right to Brew but they purposely have no formal organization. Many involved with that movement are also members of Free the Hops.
As far as I know, they still want to independently work on the homebrewing legislation on their own. FTH has offered the benefit of our support network if they need a grassroots push in the event of an upcoming vote, but as long as Right to Brew is working on their own legislation, we will not introduce the same bill.
Can you at least promote the bill and find co-sponsors once their bill is introduced?
We helped promote it, and maybe we could do a better job of that next year. As far as finding co-sponsors, having co-sponsors isn’t a major point of concern in Alabama and either way that’s clearly a job for those lobbying for the bill.