Home brew competition in GA

I'm trying to put together a home brewers competition in Atlanta, to coincide with DragonCon. I've been told by D*C staff that having one on site would violate the GA hotel's license.

Can anyone point me in the direction of the laws regarding HB competitions for the state?

Do any HB competitions have to be held in a bar or restaurant, for example?

Thank you,

Chris

I was actually thinking of brewing up some D*C beers to share with friends, and I love this idea. I am a Georgia attorney, and I can certainly look up that info for you. Not my primary area of expertise, of course, so if anyone has held a comp and can get us started with the law, that would be great.

"I was actually thinking of brewing up some D*C beers to share with friends, and I love this idea. I am a Georgia attorney, and I can certainly look up that info for you. Not my primary area of expertise, of course, so if anyone has held a comp and can get us started with the law, that would be great."

One of the ways around it *may* be to have the comp in a private suite, as long as the general public isn't invited. That way, it may still qualify as 'private consumption' and bypass the code issues.

Thanks for the help!

Have you consulted the AHA? or BJCP? It seems either could provide the information you need to set up a competition.

http://www.bjcp.org/compcenter.php

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCPCompHdbk.pdf (Competition Handbook)

Good suggestions. I have just been trying to figure out the law and calling the Dept. of Alcohol and Tobacco in GA. I will contact the AHA and BJCP as well.

So what ever happened with this... DC is over, but what about thoughs on a private event for a competition

Keep me in the loop on this as well, I'm in the EAV

icanbenchurcat said:

So what ever happened with this... DC is over, but what about thoughs on a private event for a competition

Click to expand...

D*C is never over.....

Hey guys, thanks for the interest in the idea.

Sorry I haven't responded, didn't find the notification emails until today.

This is still something that I'd like to do, but I haven't had time to pursue the legality issues.

Well, I did my best to find the legality before last Con, but got nothing. I read the statutes, called the state, called the AHA, and couldn't get an answer. The best I got was "They must be legal because other people do them." No answers on exactly how. Plus, if we actually did it at the con, the con rules would probably have to come into play as well.

One thing we could try is call a local competition organizer and find out what they do...

Just saw this on another thread. New law proposed in Georgia: http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-01-29/bill-would-allow-home-brewers-georgia-compete

There is a Homebrew contest at the 2013 Suwanee Beer Fest in March 16
http://suwaneebeerfest.com/home-brew-contest/

Not sure how they are doing that, considering it's not legal to transport homebrew. According to SittingDuck's link posted above.

http://coverthops.com/

20th Annual Peach State Brew Off. Just cause the books say it is illegal does not mean it is enforced or policed.

Yeah, there asre competitions all over the state all the time. That was the problem I was running into. Everyone says, well, they must be OK because people are doing them, but nobody can say how they are doing them (or how we could do one). If that new law passes, though, then there will be some clear process which can be followed (and you could show Dragon Con that we complied with) in order to set one up. Until then, the process seems to be "just do it and assume no one cares."