Magic City Post & ShopBirmingham.com have commissioned a series of three iconic ‘Birmingham’ posters. Each poster focuses on an event or place that helps cast Birmingham in the positive light that it deserves on the national stage.

Free the Hops is their next poster partner. They believe we have helped band together the local craft brewing community, and a lot of laws got changed as a result of their efforts. Free the Hops will receive 20% of the purchase price of each poster to be used for the organization’s general fund, which provides the local craft brewing community with events, political support, and educational information. The rest of the funds go to pay the Artists, printing the poster, and what’s left over will help market our local independent businesses and their products to people all over the country on ShopBirmingham.com.

This is a 20″ X 16″ four color silkscreen poster, printed with non-toxic water based ink, and printed on Accent Opaque White 100# coverstock. Signed and numbered edition of 100 prints. The poster was designed by Artists Hero, and they’ve completed commissioned pieces for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other cultural institutions across the country.

The bottom center of the poster has a silkscreen sig that reads “Birmingham Brewery Movement 2012. Commissioned by Magic City Post & ShopBirmingham.com in partnership with ‘Free the Hops’.

Also included is a small design that reads Designed and Hand Printed by Hero Design Studio. HeroandSound.com.” The poster is numbered 10/100, etc. and also signed by Hero.

Print with included FTH membership for those that aren’t members yet.

Print only.

Huntsville Beer reminded us that today was National Homebrew Day. If you’re looking for some group therapy support after listening to the homebrew bill debate from last week that ultimately ended in the defeat of this year’s homebrew legalization efforts, I also recommend checking out Dan Murphy’s piece in the Press-Register.

Last week, I committed an act that I’d recommend no one in their right mind attempt if they value their sanity: I sat at my desk listening to the state House of Representatives debate, and ultimately kill, a bill that would have legalized homebrewing in Alabama.

Anheuser-Busch Delivers More Than 360,000 Cans of Water to Assist Tornado and Storm Relief Efforts in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

Let’s take a step back from our legislative issues, and sincerely thank Anheuser-Busch for this generous act of support to the devastated areas of south. Anheuser-Busch has a history of providing drinking water to areas affected by natural disaster.  With their production facilities and distribution channels, they are uniquely competent at providing fast assistance.

Everyone is searching for words to respond to the devastation that hit Alabama and other states last week. As with everyone else, we are at a loss.

Free the Hops is an organization of individuals, and all of us were impacted by the storms to some degree. Many of us are simply shocked by the destruction. Many have been volunteering in our community. Others have lost their homes. Beer legislation, obviously, has not been a top priority. As we all begin the long road back to normality in Alabama, however, you can be sure we will continue our cause.

SB192 is about economic development in Alabama. The legal situation here is not conducive to a thriving brewing industry. To show this, I’ve looked at the numbers in Alabama versus the numbers in the southern states surrounding us.

It’s also helpful to look at South Carolina – which has a very similar population to Alabama and is also a deep south state. In South Carolina, there are 19 breweries according to BeerAdvocate.com. In Alabama, we have 5 listed. So what’s the big difference between South Carolina and Alabama? Brewery laws. In South Carolina, tap rooms are legal. In Alabama, they are not. In South Carolina, brewpubs are legal. In Alabama, brewpubs are so heavily restricted that not a single brewpub currently operates in this state.

Here is a comparison of Alabama to the states surrounding us.

We’re in troubling economic times in Alabama. SB192 might be able to quadruple the brewing industry in this state without costing the public a penny.

The Alabama Brewers’ Guild issued a thorough statement on the Free the Hops boycott this weekend. An excerpt:

Small, independent breweries in our state have a steep uphill battle from their moment of inception. We do not enjoy the same privileges in Alabama that breweries in other states enjoy. Many breweries thrive in states such as California, Georgia, Colorado, and Tennessee because they exist in a legal environment friendlier to craft brewers. [...]

Having ourselves experienced the bitter disappointment and frustration of seeing craft brewery reform legislation, year-after-year, die at the hands of Alabama distributors, the Alabama Brewers Guild understands FTH’s call for a boycott.  We regret if any breweries have been caught in the cross-fire.  We hope with their help, with FTH’s support, with the ABG’s support, and with the Distributors’ support of small business and craft beer in Alabama, swift passage of SB192 will end FTH’s call for such action.

Enough is enough.  The stranglehold on Alabama’s small start-up breweries by forces within their own home state must end.

Formed in 2009, the Alabama Brewers Guild exists to promote the common interests of its members and the craft beer brewing industry in Alabama. The core membership of the guild consists of licensed Alabama breweries and brewpubs actively engaged in the brewing of craft beer at a facility located in the state of Alabama.

We are not moderating comments to prevent criticism. We are moderating to prevent obscenity, extreme profanity, and libelous statements from appearing on our website. We will approve any comments that do not fall into those categories.

We’re not intentionally trying to hurt Great Divide or any other craft brewery. I promise.

Our targets in the boycott are a group of wholesalers whose primary product is Anheuser-Busch. Some have suggested we restrict our boycott to Anheuser-Busch. However, we haven’t been dealing with Anheuser-Busch directly. We’ve been dealing with their distributors – independent companies that have a strong business relationship with the mega-brewery. Unfortunately, those wholesalers also sell other craft breweries in Alabama. And when it comes to Alabama law, NO ONE can buy a beer without buying it through their wholesaler.

At our festivals, we have to buy all of our beer from these wholesalers. Does anyone blame us for not wanting to write a check for up to $10,000 to a business that is hurting craft beer legislation? We’re sorry some great breweries are caught in the crossfire, but the franchise laws in Alabama make it impossible not to.

You asked for it.

The current Alabama Brewpub Act allows a brewery to have on-premise sales with the following conditions:

• The brewery has to be in a historic building
• The brewery has to have a restaurant with seating for 80
• The brewery has to be in a county that had a brewery prior to 1918
• If a brewery has on-premise sales, they can no longer sell to wholesalers

The Brewery Modernization Act seeks to change that. In the form that passed the Senate this year and is sitting in House committee, a brewery would be able to have on-premise sales without having to meet those restrictions. They just have to get a brewpub license. They can also continue selling to wholesalers.

Since this whole drama started, we’ve been offered several proposals for a compromise.

The first compromise was to revoke the Alabama Brewpub Act altogether and instead allow a brewery to obtain a Restaurant Retail Liquor License. A Restaurant Retail Liquor license requires a restaurant, so we said no.

Then it was changed to allow them to obtain one of a variety of licenses that would allow them to be a brewpub or a tap room. The tap rooms would be allowed to sell beer for off-premise. We thought this was great! Then they changed it to on-premise only. We still thought that was pretty good. Then they changed their mind again and gave us something this week, which I termed “the abomination” earlier today.

Their proposal earlier this week would have allowed for a “tap room” to have a 2 1/2 hour “tasting” in 2 oz. samples. It kept many of the restrictions on brewpubs in place. I got whiplash. I still don’t understand how we went from the perfectly acceptable compromise in the last paragraph to that.

We found this language, and the waste of time, completely unacceptable and started prepping for a boycott. We had been floating the idea around for a couple weeks. We also informed their craft beer suppliers that we were considering it at least a week ago. Many of the breweries – Back Forty in particular – have been helpful in trying to get their wholesalers on board.

Yesterday, hours before the boycott was to be started, we got another proposal. It still keeps most of the brewpub restrictions in place, but allows tap rooms to have “unrestricted tastings.” That seems a little vague. We were also informed that the historic language in the Brewpub Act was something they were not willing to compromise on.

From what I’m gathering by talking to folks, the wholesalers are telling their suppliers that their only concern is protecting their franchise laws from lawsuits. If you’re familiar with the three-tier system – that’s what they are telling everyone this is all about. WE DON’T CARE ABOUT THE THREE-TIER SYSTEM. We’re not trying to fight it, we not trying to save it. If that’s what they are really worried about, then we are more than happy to include some language protecting it.

Instead, we’ve spent weeks talking about historic buildings and restaurant requirements. From my perspective, that’s what they have been worried about. That’s what’s been talked about. This latest talk about the three-tier system is news to me.

The vote for the boycott was unanimous, with one board member recused from any discussion or vote due to conflict of interest.

More details in a few hours.