Category Archives: politics

Dead this year

Most of you know by now that we the Alabama House didn’t make it to the second Special Order Calendar, and thus the Brewery Modernization Act never came up for a vote. Since the legislative session is now over, we’re dead this year. It came a long way for its first year, but in the [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

The 30th Day

SB153 (Homebrew legalization) is dead in committee. Despite Chairman Morrow’s efforts, the House Tourism and Travel Committee didn’t have enough people show up to have a quorum to give it a favorable report. There’s simply no way this is going to happen this year.
SB328 (Brewery Modernization Act), however, is still kicking. We have high hopes [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

This is the week for the Brewery Modernization Act and Homebrew bill

This is the final week of the legislative session in Montgomery. In dramatic fashion, the Brewery Modernization Act may come up on the second-to-last or last day of the 2010 session – this Wednesday or Thursday.
SB328 has already passed the Senate and should come up for a vote in the House this Wednesday or Thursday. [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

No more BIR vote this session

The General Fund Budget went to the Governor yesterday. That means no more Budget Isolation Resolutions. If you’re new to Alabama politics, the state constitution has this strange provision where no bills can be passed before the state budgets. The only way to vote on a bill before the budgets is if the chamber adopts [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

Brewery Modernization Act passes House committee… again

Our Senate flavor of the Brewery Modernization Act, SB328, passed out of the House Tourism and Travel Committee this morning without a hitch. This bill is now the substitute legislation. Since SB328 passed the Senate, we are now a House vote away from being sent to the Governor.
When can we expect a vote? That’s hard [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

Passing the Brewery Modernization Act

In order for a bill to become law, the same bill number must pass both the House and the Senate. It then goes to the Governor. We introduced two Brewery Modernization Act bills in the legislature this year – one in the Senate (SB328) and one in the House (HB406). Although they are the same [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

Follow up with your Senator

Thank you to everyone who called and emailed yesterday. I was cc’ed on several emails going to Senators and Representatives and also received a lot of email from supporters telling me that they called. And I know many more people called and emailed that didn’t tell me about it. That effort really does make a [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

Brewery Modernization Act passes the Senate

The Brewery Modernization Act just passed the Senate in the most routine vote a Free the Hops bill has probably ever received. The Budget Isolation Resolution was passed using a “previous roll,” which means everyone just agreed to let it pass without a real vote. The substitute was adopted in similar fashion.
They took a full [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

In the Senate today?

Most of you should have gotten an email explaining that we should be in the Senate today. If you didn’t, you need to sign up for the newsletter. As of now, we have every indication that the Brewery Modernization Act will be on the agenda today in the Alabama Senate. Nothing is guaranteed, but we [...]

Posted in politics | Comments closed

Why not have a beer at the brewery itself?

The Huntsville Times recently ran a piece about Huntsville’s new brewery, Straight to Ale. On the online comments, someone asked a very good question:
Why don’t any of these brewery’s here in Huntsville have a bar at the brewery itself. I would like to go and see the process and be able to have a beer [...]

Also posted in media | Comments closed