And I thought Georgia was bad
I was recently at a wedding out of state and explaining to a friend (from Colorado) how oppressive the beer laws in Georgia have been. For those of you who are new to this discussion said oppressions included the illegality of high gravity beers until a few years ago, complex laws that make it tough for breweries and no selling on Sunday to name a few. I thought we had it rough until I stumbled upon the “Free the Hops/Alabamians for Specialty Beer” group. Not only do they prohibit the sale of beer with over 6% ABV but they also have very tight restrictions on home-brewing (MNB could probably not exist in AL). From the site:
Of the Top 100 beers of the World at BeerAdvocate.com, a renowned beer review site, 98 cannot be sold in this state. Why is our choice so limited?
Currently, Alabama is one of only three states in the country that limits alcohol by volume (ABV) for beer to only 6%, and the only state that limits beer containers to a size of no more than 1 pint (16 ounces).
Perspective changes everything and Georgia doesn’t look quite so oppressive today.
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
April 16th, 2008 at 9:04 am
You’re right on this one Joel…GA isn’t close to the worst. Look up the policies in place in UT. You have to belong to a “drinking club” to consume anything other than 3.2 beer! No wonder the local micro-brews name their beers stuff like “Polygamy Porter” and “evolution Amber Ale!”
http://www.wasatchbeers.com/beers.html
April 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am
And still the reigning Champ of ass-backwards beer law….Utah!
“Beer (with 3.2% alcohol content by weight) in bottles or cans may be purchased to go at most grocery and convenience stores in Utah.”
All beer sold in Utah must be no more than 3.2% ABW - For those of you that don’t brew, that’s 3.9%ABV. Pretty sad state of affairs. Here in NY our oppressive laws are aimed at business. They don’t care what you put in there, just expect to be taxed to the gills on it.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Sorry bout the Sout’ boys, I may side with Travis here and say that here in the north we know that a little extra hooch in the beer don’t hurt you or make you handle snakes any differently. We have never had such an issue in the People’s Socialist Democratic republic of Oregon, aka Beervana. In fact Micro-Distilling is really starting to take off now. Hats off to the boys at House spirits. Yummm Mirco- Aquavit!!!!! http://www.medoyeff.com/
April 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
It gets worse though. Scott Oberman, a guy inteviewed for this article :
http://www.auburnbrewclub.org/2008/03/10/la-times-beer-battle-brewing-in-alabama/
came home to find a note on his front door from an ABC agent…you can read his response at the ‘Free the Hops’ website : http://www.freethehops.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2134
poor guy. Gives me something else to add to the ‘Why I’m glad I don’t live in Alabama list.’