Birmingham News: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley plans to sign beer bill into law.

An article in the Birmingham News confirms that Governor Bentley plan on signing SB192. A good read overall.

The best way to resolve this is for the AB wholesalers in this state to back off and help make the Brewery Modernization Act law.

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.

I’m a big believer in local beer and local beer culture. Folks in the Huntsville area can learn about all the latest news at a fairly new blog:

www.huntsvillebeer.com

If you’re not quite a “beer insider” in the Tennessee Valley, this is a great resource for events and happenings about Huntsville area beers, breweries, and pubs. If you are a beer insider, well… shouldn’t you already know about this blog?

Specifically, the Montgomery Advertiser was focusing on the statutory red tape that the new owners of the Montgomery Brewpub location will face unless the law is changed.

Montgomery Advertiser: Brew Pub’s new owners want Legislature to change restrictive laws

There is one factual error in the article, a simple mistake.

Because along with the other restrictions, brewpubs can be located only in historical buildings or districts and must be located in wet counties that had a licensed brewery prior to Prohibition, there are only a handful in the state. If Montgomery’s does not reopen, there would be only four in the state — in Huntsville, Mobile, Birmingham and Auburn.

There are actually no currently-operating “brewpubs” in Alabama. Huntsville and Birmingham have breweries that do not have the brewpub license, which means they can not sell beer on-premise at the brewery. Mobile and Auburn used to have brewpubs but they both closed.

Thanks to The Gadsden Times for revisiting the the Brewery Modernization Act in the off season.

This being politics, there was an amendment made to the bill which helped it to pass. This amendment restricts the transportation of homebrew to no more than 20gallons at a time, whether to clubs, competitions, or whatever, but this does not affect the quantity that can be brewed which falls under the Federal guidelines.

I now have the updated wording of the bill, which now says:
6 (c) Not more than 20 gallons of beer, mead, cider, or wine produced under this
7 section may be removed from the premises where it was produced
8 and may be transported for personal and noncommercial uses,

Nothing is guaranteed, not in politics, but this is a very exciting stage, and massive kudos to Alabama’s homebrewers for passing the Senate! Next stage – the House!

Although Free the Hops is focused squarely on the Brewery Modernization Act, you should also know that there is another bill that would legalize the homebrewing of beer, mead, cider, and wine. SB153 was introduced by Senator Larry Dixon yesterday. Free the Hops openly supports the repeal of the current ban on homebrewing and will keep an eye on this one for our supporters.

To that end we have created a survey to find out what you want us to deal with. It’s very short and should only take you a minute or so to complete:

Surveymonkey

The survey is open through to the end of September and we will be announcing our 2010 legislative agenda in October.

Together we can Free the Hops!

Anyone who tried to take the survey and got an error message about it being closed, my humble apologies: there was a configuration error which caused this error message to appear. This error has been corrected and the survey is open for responses!

Unfortunately, the Senate is up to its old tricks again this year. Once again, they are regularly deadlocking themselves in filibusters and voting on little to no legislation. We are in the final weeks of the legislative session, and our bill is still sitting there waiting for them to get some work done. All they have to do is work.

Time is ticking, and we shouldn’t reserve ourselves to just sitting around, waiting on them. So today, we’re starting a coordinated campaign to let them know that we’re watching, and that we want them to do the work they’ve been elected to do. Your state senator represents YOU in Montgomery, so please take the time TODAY to contact them and let them know how you feel. Don’t know what to say? Many people have never emailed their elected officials, but it’s easy. Just write something like, “My name is [name] and I live in your district. I’ve been watching the progress in the Senate this session, and I’m writing because… ” There’s really nothing to it. Remember, it’s their job to represent you. They need to hear from you, and they do read their email.

To find the name and contact information for you state senator, just enter your street address and city OR zip+4 at our legislative page. We do not use the address information entered into that form for any purpose other than making the program work. When you contact your senator, let him or her know that, regardless of their position on our bill, you want to see a VOTE on HB373, the Gourmet Beer Bill. Here are some pointers to keep in mind in your email:

* Urge that they resolve the issues that are slowing business and get our bill, HB373, up for a vote.
* Stay friendly. You may be angry, but a positive tone is more likely to get them to listen to you
* Do this TODAY! Like I said above, we’re approaching the end of the session, and we’re not the only bill on their agenda.

For those of you who are outside Alabama or who are currently without a sitting Senator, please contact any of the following urging them to help break the deadlock:

Lt. Governor: Jim Folsom, Jr. (info@ltgov.alabama.gov)
Senate Pro Tem: Rodger Smitherman (rodger.smitherman@alsenate.gov)
Senate Majority (Democrats) Leader: Zeb Little (zeb@zeblittlelawfirm.com)
Senate Minority (Republicans) Leader: Jabo Waggoner (jabo.waggoner@alsenate.gov)

We want the Senate to vote on the House Bill, HB373, because this will be final passage – the bill’s next stop would be Governor Riley’s desk!

If you get a reply, please let us know. You can email me or Dan Roberts at dan.roberts@freethehops.org. And please do this today. If all of our thousands of members and supporters take this small step, I promise you it will have an impact.

Edit to add: thank you, everyone, for your support! It is very gratifying to see how many people have already contacted their Senators – you’re awesome!