On Saturday, November 14th from 6pm – 10pm at Sloss Furnaces, Free The Hops will host a unique event to benefit the Autism Society of Alabama.

Six local restaurants will be featuring a variety of fine foods and we will be expertly pairing those dishes with great craft beer. Much to the surprise of many people, beer can be the perfect compliment to a wide range of food. Saison and salad, brown ale and steak, stout and chocolate… the flavors combine to enhance your meal in ways you never knew were possible.

We in Free The Hops are proud to do an event like this which helps a very worthy charity with the added benefit of enhancing beer culture in Birmingham. So please get your tickets and come out to enjoy great food, great beer, and great music from our friends in Honeybaked. 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Austism Society of Alabama.

Check out BrewsForClues.org for details and to buy tickets.

Things settled down for a while after an initial explosion of new beers that arrived within a month or so of the ABV bill getting signed into law.  I think we saw close to 100 new products over about a six week period.  That was almost exclusively the result of wholesalers bringing in previously forbidden products from their existing suppliers — products they already had access to but couldn’t stock in their warehouses because they were illegal in this state before the law change.  Once that supply chain was exhausted, the influx of new beers leveled off.

But now we’ve had another tidal wave of new beers in the last few weeks and I’m like a kid in a candy store.  For a good look at much of what’s coming in, check out the websites of two of FTH’s favorite beer bars, The J. Clyde and The Nook.

Here’s a link to what’s new at the Clyde: http://jclyde.com/?p=435

And here’s a link to what’s new at the Nook: http://www.thenooktavern.com/TheNook/Beers.html

Bell’s and Boulder Beer have been on the Gulf Coast for quite a while, but they are brand new to all of us here in the northern part of the state.  Then there’s the De Dolle, Hitachino, Einbecker, and Aventinus brews, and more are still hitting warehouses.  Add in the St. Bernardus Belgians that hit several weeks ago, and the Urthel Belgians just arriving at some stores, and you can see that Alabamians are gaining access to a very impressive list of beers.

This is what Free The Hops hath wrought.  Stay tuned, as we are juuust about to announce next year’s legislative agenda.

There’s a couple of wrinkles to be sorted out yet, but I wanted to get the information out there so that people who are interested could email info “at” jclyde.com to register your interest.

It’s going to be fantastic…

Would you like to share a few pints of Birmingham’s local Good People Brewing Co.’s beer at home with friends?  Perhaps some of the new Snake Handler Double IPA or Fatso Imperial Stout?

An unusual opportunity for doing just that is on the horizon.

You may not be familiar with the term “growler” as beer sales in growlers are illegal throughout most of Alabama.  That’s actually one of the laws that Free The Hops would like to address at some point — legalizing growler sales.  A growler is glass jug (typically 1/2 gallon) which is filled from a tap of draught beer, to be consumed at home.

While this form of beer sale is illegal in most places in Alabama, it was once legal and a handful of establishments were “grandfathered” in under the old law.  Those places can still legally sell draught beer to go in half gallon and gallon containers.  One such place is Dee’s Package Store on Greensprings Hwy in Birmingham.  And Dee’s has jumped head first into craft beer in the wake of FTH’s success with the ABV bill this year.

Dee’s has started selling some high gravity beer by the half gallon, such as North Coast Old Rasputin.  And they’re ready to sell Good People if we’re ready to buy it.  At long last, our chance to enjoy Good People beer at home.

To really do it up right, Good People are going to order a bunch of half gallon growlers with their logo on them to sell to you and me for our beer to go.   And to make sure they don’t sink a lot of money into ordering more than they can sell, they are doing pre-sales right now.  Here is Jason Malone’s explanation:

Ok, I got my quote back and put the growler “pre-sale” up on the GPBC store:

http://www.shop.goodpeoplebrewing.com

$5 per growler. I’ll shut down the orders on the 25th, order them, and then work out distributing (meet at the brewery or Clyde).

Note that when you order your growler you may get a confirmation email telling you it will be shipped to your house.  That is not true; it’s a generic email intended for other merch sales on their site.  Shipping these puppies would be cost prohibitive.  If you buy one, you’ll need to pick it up either at the brewery or at some pre-arranged meetup which will be announced on this blog.

I’ve ordered mine.

We went into this session expecting our main difficulty to be the do-nothing posture of the Senate, and per my post below, that expectation was valid.

So everything’s in place for us to come to a floor vote in the Senate… it all hinges on whether they do any real work this year. Hope for the best.

You can hardly blame Phil Poole. He didn’t design the system. He’s just using it to his advantage, as many other Senators have used it to their advantage. As they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

The sad reality is that the rules under which our Alabama Senate operates allow one Senator to hold the entire session hostage as long as he can speak. One Senator can filibuster ad infinitum until he gets his way on a pet issue. And if the Senators who stand on the other side of the issue are ornery enough, nothing gets done. Period. That’s the story of the entire 2008 Session of the Alabama Senate. Pray that it’s not the story of 2009.

That’s your tax dollars at work. Those are your elected officials. Getting paid $50,000 of taxpayer money every year to stand in front of a microphone for a few hours, two days a week, only a few months a year, bickering over pet issues and holding up scores of necessary bills, many of which never see the light of day.

It’s far too early to get despondent. It’s entirely possible this could clear up in a few days and lots of bills will pass. But we certainly have no guarantees. The system itself is deeply flawed and needs reform, and voters need to punish some legislators at the polls next year for engaging in absurdly childish and wasteful antics.

Just keep watch to see if/when things get moving, or if we have another session-long filibuster…

The House Gourmet Beer Bill is HB373, sponsored by Representative Thomas Jackson, who has been our bill sponsor in the House on each occasion.

The Senate Gourmet Beer Bill is SB132, now sponsored by Senator Singleton as our former Senate sponsor, Senator Parker Griffith, was elected to the US Congress.

Senator Bobby Singleton was elected to the Alabama Senate, January 25, 2005, to fill the unexpired term of former Senator Charles Steele, who resigned. He was elected to his first full term, November 7, 2006. He serves as the Chair of Tourism and Marketing Committee, Deputy Chair of Finance and Taxation – General Fund Committee, Vice Chair of Banking and Insurance Committee, Chairman of The Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, and is the Economic Development Chairman of the West Alabama Rural Action Commission (WARAC) for Region 2.

As always, I am hopeful. We have made progress every year since we began working on the ABV law in this state, and the only step left is getting the Gourmet Beer Bill through the Senate. Our chances look good.

That said, we’re likely in for another wild ride in the state legislature this year, as our deeply dysfunctional Senate rarely accomplishes much of substance. We certainly have reason to be cautious in our optimism as there is never any guarantee our Senate will pass more than a paltry handful of big ticket bills, leaving smaller issues of concern only to small constituencies on the table, untouched.

Watch the budget process, as the massive budget shortfall this year will be the source of a lot of drama. And one of the proposals for helping address the shortfall — new taxes on gambling — will surely make for a hot debate. Let’s hope they don’t get bogged down in that debate at the expense of all other issues in the state.

Though the effect wouldn’t be especially large, we can take comfort in knowing that passage of the Gourmet Beer Bill will have a positive net impact on tax revenue, as all the expensive beers many of us currently buy out of state would get purchased right here in Alabama. I would hope state legislators would welcome any increase in tax revenue in times like these.

We fully expect to repeat last year’s success in the House. And we believe we have the votes we need to pass in the Senate if they ever bring it to the floor. But don’t get complacent. Nothing is certain in politics, so we’re counting on all of our grassroots supporters to make phone calls and write letters when the time is right, to make sure our state legislators understand the importance of the Gourmet Beer Bill for many citizens in Alabama.

Free the Hops!

While this is a cause for celebration, there are still three states in the USA that are dealing with the consequences of Prohibition – Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia are the only three states that restrict what beverages a beer drinker may enjoy, while not restricting the choices made by liquor or wine drinkers in a like fashion.

This is the heart of the paradox that Free the Hops is working to change: that, 75 years later, beer drinkers are still being punished for preferring to avoid the mass marketed tasteless beverages that still unfairly dominate the market, that domination having arisen from the ashes of Prohibition.

Enjoy repeal day. But if you are in Alabama, Mississippi, or West Virginia, don’t dare to enjoy it with a fine craft beer from Colorado or Oregon, or a Belgian Trappist beer, if you are worried about breaking a mainfestly unjust and unfair law.

The beer tents were staffed by Free the Hops supporters. These are people from all walks of life: university students, young couples with children, professionals, and many more. All of these people willingly surrendered their Saturday afternoon – some at very short notice! – to help out by working hard for just under 3 hours pouring beer, talking beer, and talking Free the Hops. (Those of you who worked the brewfest will understand the work involved, even though it is also rewarding!)

To me, this is the non-profit spirit in action: willingly giving so that others can have a good time, while also educating those people about the cause.

Without volunteers, Free the Hops can achieve nothing. And I thank each and every person who came out to Ross Bridge this afternoon for making the event such a success for Free the Hops and the organizers.