The problem is that it's impossible to make the same economic argument than was possible in the case of sales of higher ABV beers. You can't present a picture of all those people driving to GA or FL to buy their refreshment, thereby doing AL out of all that revenue. There's no net gain involved for the State of Alabama in legalizing homebrewing...and don't give me any stuff about legislators doing the right thing. No politician ever did anything except the expedient thing. The question is.....what's the expedient thing here?
I can only see one way out, and it's fairly messy. From what I've read in this thread and others, barring some huge change in Alabama politics there's a path to success, if homebrewers have the stomach for it. Get as manyhomebrewers committed as possible, and on a given day, publicly announced, thousands of homebrewers are mashing and doing boils in their driveway. This may cost a lot of people.....but probably not. Something of that magnitude is likely to get Alabama in the national media in ways they'd rather not. Threats of making a big enough splash may do it where nothing else will.
Do I think this is even possible? Not very, I suppose, and the state may simply ignore it, as there'll doubtless be little demand from any constituency to enforce the law......