Alabama vote.

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Some of our lawmakers in Alabama are an utter embarassment. Listening to that clip from last year makes you wonder how some of them got voted in. I'm just glad my representative in this area is 100% for homebrewing and hoping maybe we can finally get this thing passed once and for all.
 
Even if it doesn't get a vote today it should get back on the calendar before the end of the session on May 21st.
 
I have a question for those folks living in Alabama. Since it is legal to brew in Colorado, and the wife and I are headed to Alabama next month for a visit with family can I bring beer with me? We are looking at bringing two kegs in a custom keg serving cooler I am building. This beer is to celebrate a graduation for my nephew, and a wedding for my niece but will only be served at my brother in-laws house.

Thanks Dave
 
fly-fisher said:
I have a question for those folks living in Alabama. Since it is legal to brew in Colorado, and the wife and I are headed to Alabama next month for a visit with family can I bring beer with me? We are looking at bringing two kegs in a custom keg serving cooler I am building. This beer is to celebrate a graduation for my nephew, and a wedding for my niece but will only be served at my brother in-laws house.

Thanks Dave
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Seems like it should be fine, right? You're not brewing in Alabama, just driving some beer across state lines.

Besides, if you get pulled over... That's just Pepsi Cola, sir, in these here Cornies.
 
fly-fisher said:
I have a question for those folks living in Alabama. Since it is legal to brew in Colorado, and the wife and I are headed to Alabama next month for a visit with family can I bring beer with me? We are looking at bringing two kegs in a custom keg serving cooler I am building. This beer is to celebrate a graduation for my nephew, and a wedding for my niece but will only be served at my brother in-laws house.

Thanks Dave
Click to expand...


Officially it's not legal to transport homebrew into Alabama but I don't think you'll have a problem unless you were pulled over and had a refrigerated truck full.
 
fly-fisher said:
I have a question for those folks living in Alabama. Since it is legal to brew in Colorado, and the wife and I are headed to Alabama next month for a visit with family can I bring beer with me? We are looking at bringing two kegs in a custom keg serving cooler I am building. This beer is to celebrate a graduation for my nephew, and a wedding for my niece but will only be served at my brother in-laws house.

Thanks Dave
Click to expand...

You're fine as long as you don't try to sell it.

Note that we have LHBS here. The law is not enforced in any capacity, as the odds of it standing up to an appellate challenge are next to none.

The problem with Alabama is twofold:

1. To get almost any law changed literally requires an amendment to our state constitution. Every year, we have a dozen (or more) amendments on the ballot that go down to trivial crap like town boundaries, rights for municipalities to impose taxes, etc. It is 40 times longer than the US constitution, and is easily the longest in the world. We badly need a rewrite, but nobody wants to uncover all of the rot that would come from such a task...

2. Alabama legislators are some of the most unqualified, corrupt, self serving thieves anywhere in any form of government. If a bill doesn't make money for a sufficient portion of the legislators (or does not have enough public outcry to endanger their jobs), it gets ignored of filibustered until it is dropped.

In short, the Alabama lawmaking process is a joke, and anyone with any modicum of civil understanding is appalled and/or ashamed of it.
 
I just wanted to say,

dont-call-me-shirley.jpg



Good luck. We're all counting on you.
 
kmos said:
Seems like it should be fine, right? You're not brewing in Alabama, just driving some beer across state lines.

Besides, if you get pulled over... That's just Pepsi Cola, sir, in these here Cornies.
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Each state has it's own laws about transporting alcohol across state lines. I didn't know until recently there is a federal law against interstate alcohol transportation.

Just keep it covered or in your trunk and no one will bother you.
 
Well I figured I would not have to much of a problem as I actually will not be the one transporting it. I am leaving that up to the wife's folks who are driving down and are in their early 70's who's going to stop them? ;) The wife and I will be flying down a few days later. So I am in the clear till we start serving then the only thing I need to worry about is the new nephew in-law who works for the Alabama Correction Dept. but I can still whip his a$$. And he just won't be invite back up here to go fly-fishing or snowmobiling again? Bribery is great right.:rockin:
 
CGVT said:
The biggest problem is the "morals police". I wrote my rep, but I think he is a solid Bible thumping no. He has voted against every beer related bill that has come up.
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Send him Ecclesiastes 11:1-2, explaining how it's actually referring to the beer-making process and sharing homebrew with your friends. I don't care whether it's actually the correct interpretation, just make him believe it. :D

Best of luck
 
Our bill was up next but they voted to adjourn for the day. Who knows when if ever the bill will get back on the calendar.
 
Homebrew Bill is back on the calendar for tommorrow ,April 26th.
We have some representatives in the house that are working hard to get this bill passed so hopefully we'll get a vote.
Everyone cross your fingers !!!
 
We are back on the calendar for tomorrow. #4 on the list and I don't now enough about the three in front of it to know if they are controversial. They made it through ten bills last night so maybe we get a vote this time.
 
Is this just a moral victory for you home brewers? Has anyone actually been convicted of home brewing in LAWL-a-bama?

The Leslie Nielsen pic made me laugh, thanks for that.
 
I'm new to homebrewing, but I've been following Alabama beer laws and attempts to change them for about five years (Free The Hops!).

There is a section of Alabama law that defines what beer is, what wine is, what fortified wine is, etc. There is no provision for mead, or for any alcohol fermented from honey. I don't think this bill, if passed, will work - does anyone know if the ABC board has been consulted on this?

And to answer a previous question, no, it is not legal to bring homebrew, or any other alcoholic beverage, into Alabama, unless you are supplying a distributor, it's packaged in approved containers and labeling, taxes paid on it, etc.
 
Also, there was a homebrewer in Alabama a couple of years ago who had a run in with the law. I don't know if he's the same one you're talking about or not. The L.A. Times did a story about a local home brewing club, their fight to change the law, and ran it with a picture of some of the guys with their brew. It got a lot of attention. The ABC called one of the guys, had him come into their offices, and sign some paperwork basically saying "yes, I know home brewing is illegal, I've been a bad boy, I promise never to do it again..." That sort of thing. Scared him pretty good - he was divorced or separated, and was afraid that he might lose custody or rights to see his kids as a result.
 
I wrote to my representatives, this year. I moved to Alabama 6 years ago, after being a homebrewer since 1999. Then, I find out it is a "felony" in AL and MS. Ridiculous. I had to go back and listen to the audio clip from last years' retarded display from our reps. At least it gives a good laugh... until you realize that these are the folks setting policy and making laws. Then it gets kinda scary. I did get a couple of letters back saying that they were in favor of the bill, but I also got quite a few, "I promise to give the bill my fullest consideration". That's politician for "I'm voting no, but I don't want to come out and say that, because you want me to vote yes". I guess we'll see.
 
I've got my fingers crossed that it passes. I lived in Auburn for a couple of years and my parents have loved there for quite awhile. It's on the short list of places we're looking to move to when things are squared away up here and we're ready to relocate.
 
pentachris said:
There is a section of Alabama law that defines what beer is, what wine is, what fortified wine is, etc. There is no provision for mead, or for any alcohol fermented from honey. I don't think this bill, if passed, will work - does anyone know if the ABC board has been consulted on this?
Click to expand...

ABC has been closely consulted and have introduced their own changes (this bill includes a legal definition for mead). The beer distributors also had their say in the bill (they didn't want homebrewers giving away beer in ways that cut into their profits) and have signed off on the bill. The homebrewers aren't thrilled with the current version of it, but we'll take not being felons. So, yes, all directly affected parties are fully aware of what's in the bill and have approved it. The only group actively opposing it is ALCAP ("Alabama's Moral Compass"), which opposes any alcohol bill anyway.
 
At least the bill is still open. They shut down the 2 homebrew bills proposed in Mississippi immediately. It's still illegal, although it was pretty funny a few years ago when Haley Barbour announced MS Craft Beer Week honoring homebrewers :confused:
 
DocBrown said:
ABC has been closely consulted and have introduced their own changes (this bill includes a legal definition for mead)...
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So, a nice side effect will hopefully be the commercial sale of mead in AL. Sweet! (No seriously - sweet. Like, mead isn't sour. Hahaha. :eek:)

I just emailed Jay Love. I'll call tomorrow morning.
 
DocBrown said:
ABC has been closely consulted and have introduced their own changes (this bill includes a legal definition for mead). The beer distributors also had their say in the bill (they didn't want homebrewers giving away beer in ways that cut into their profits) and have signed off on the bill. The homebrewers aren't thrilled with the current version of it, but we'll take not being felons. So, yes, all directly affected parties are fully aware of what's in the bill and have approved it. The only group actively opposing it is ALCAP ("Alabama's Moral Compass"), which opposes any alcohol bill anyway.
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If we can just get our toe in the door we can start working on raising the limits later. That's funny about the beer distributors because most of us don't drink what they are pushing anyway.
 

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