Alabama’s beer battle heats up

Could this be the year? Alabama’s beer laws, which were written by a caveman back when John McCain was born, may just get the updating they deserve. There have been a number of high-profile incidences lately, thanks in a large part to Free the Hops. Free the Hops is a grassroots organization lobbying for beer in Alabama (and therefore the South!) with these specific goals:

• A law allowing the sale of gourmet and imported beers with alcohol content as high as 13.9%.
• Alabama to join 46 other states by legalizing the home brewing of beer.
• To get rid of the state law making it illegal to sell bottles or cans of beer in anything larger than 16-ounce containers.
• To reform Alabama’s restrictive laws on brewpubs — requiring they be in historic buildings located in counties where beer was brewed before prohibition. That law has limited the number of brewpubs in the state to three.

There’s a great article in the world-renowned Montgomery Advertiser on the progress these beer laws are making. In a nutshell:

Two years ago, a bill to raise the level of alcohol in beers sold in Alabama was so dead that the House presented it the Shroud Award for the “deadest bill” of the session.

Now, the same bill has passed the House, and proponents believe it has the votes to pass in the Senate if it can be brought up for a vote.

I encourage everyone who lives in the South and loves beer to do what they can to help.