Wanting......

I'm not sure if the "General Brewing" is the proper forum for this, so I'll jut make it a catch-all......
There's a lot of pressure being exerted on a lot of state legislatures right now on homebrewing issues, ranging from outright legitimizing it in the few states where it's still prohibited, to relaxing various regulations.
I'm not here to comment on the consequences of liberalizing / legitimizing social attitudes and impacts from homebrew, since those are rather imponderable anyhow. However, it did occur to me that with the growing numbers of homebrewers and their increasing activism, it's only a matter of time -and perhaps not that much time- before our beloved elected representatives turn their attention to the thing that's never very far from their minds- REVENUE. It may seem improbable at this point, but it could be done under the public health rubric, or any other rationale, no matter how far-fetched it seems now. As the current economic situation continues to fester, squeezing every possible source for revenue is going to become a disease, and at every level of government.

"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."

- Spock, Star Trek TOS

^^^^ What he said.

I concur with the above responses ^

Joe's got it right, I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't heard anything about this pressure on homebrewing. In fact, it was just legalized in Utah, of all places. They already tax beer, it's called buying it at the store. They'd have to start putting the tax on beer ingredients, and in case you didn't know, the farmers have HUGE amounts of lobbyists in Washington. It'd never happen.

They might as well tax baking your own bread! oh, and cooking in your house? hell that's taking money away from the restaurants!

Pancake bunny, folks. Pancake bunny.

That's all this thread needed.

There's not enough of us, not by a long shot. A craft brewery goes through more ingredients in a year than many homebrewers will in their lifetime. At a time of a sh*tty economy and jobs going overseas, the last thing politicians want to do is tax one of the big burgeoning business models that can't be outsources...and it'd be difficult to tax homebrewers and not tax craft brewers.

I'd love to bring my views to this thread, but this is not debate and I don't like to **** too close to where I surf.