Bringing Homebrewing to Mississippi.

[lucasbm]

To all Mississippians...

The homebrew clubs and AHA have been working with Raise Your Pints to legalize homebrewing. Unlike the past years, There will be a homebrewing law not attached to Raise Your Pints cap law. How does this benefit homebrewing? In the past the verbiage was made to include "and beer" to the current wine making law. That's great, but doesn't allow for events and competitions that the homebrew clubs wish to host. Now the bill is made closer to the federal statue.

HB 732

The Senate bill still has the homebrewing law attached to the cap law, but is planned to be amended to separate homebrewing into it's own bill resembling the house bill above.

SB2243

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other Raise Your Pint's house bill is the bill to raise the alcohol cap in Mississippi

HB 731

Please contact your representative and ask for his/her support.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Had I still lived in Cleveland, I'd be all over this. Keep us updated on how the bill does!

 

[lucasbm]

Will do!

Hopefully this will be Mississippi's year!

 

[lpdb185]

i just got an email from RYP about this. i'm gonna try and get everyone i know to place phone calls to our senators and reps.

 

[wendelgee2]

Why is it illegal in MS? What's standing in the way?

 

[jdp]

many of the southern states have very archaic laws when it comes to alchohol. Lots of dry counties, and a lot of regulation. Apparently MS would rather have bootleggers than homebrewers.

 

[chefchris]

good luck from a former Tupelo homebrewer!

 

[Grimster]

Howdy neighbor, we Alabamans just recently had our cap raised from I believe it was 5.9 to 13.9% for beer, I was pretty excited. Maybe you can get in touch with the freethehops.org guys and get some pointers for tactics they used to get our politicians to bite and finally approve this and use them on your own side of the yard?

Actually I just loaded the website for FTH and I see they're already trying to help RYP with support so hopefully you guys can make some headway.

 

[lpdb185]

well, as far as the homebrewing is concerned, it is one of those things that is quite rarely, if at all, enforced. even with illegal distillation of whiskey, offenders are usually warned once or twice before being prosecuted. there are only 26 ABC law enforcement agents in the entire state (two of which i went through the academy with). chances of them investing much time into prosecuting someone making a few gallons of beer in their house are pretty slim. nonetheless, the laws should reflect the general consensus of the people unless there is some overwhelming government interest (which there is not).

the ABW portion of this legislation is what really draws support. with the current 5.9ABV law, we are very limited in terms of what beer we can enjoy and there is no real justification for it when you can walk in the liquor store right next door and buy a $10 bottle of cheap whiskey that's 80-90 percent alcohol.

 

[Grimster]

Yes Alabama tried the "it's to keep kids from hurting themselves" now I don't know about the kids these politicians might know but I know when I was in high school there was no way in hell I was spending $12 for a 4 pack of say, Great Divide Yeti when I could get a whole CASE of Milwaukee's best for $12.98. Seriously this law is not "for the kids" I'm not quite sure who it's for but at least we got our raised to a more sensible restriction (why any restriction at all though?)

 

[Coastarine]

You can do it Mississippi!

 

[lucasbm]

nonetheless, the laws should reflect the general consensus of the people unless there is some overwhelming government interest (which there is not).

Don't really understand what your saying here? There are not enough homebrewers in Mississippi, so the law should keep brewing beer illegal.?

"laws should reflect the general consensus of the people"
I completely agree with you, but how many times do laws get passed or not passed based on those who are in power. The key is to let the consensus be represented. For the past couple of years RYP's bills have been killed by 1 committee, to be more specific killed by that committee's chairman. So the laws were killed by 1 county's representative. Furthermore I live in that representative's county and on beer/alcohol related topics he does not speak for his county. That is why cities in Rankin county are fighting the county's dry restrictions and are bypassing the county in order to sell wine and liquor.
Because of this, RYP is doing the right thing this year. They have multiple bills in both the house and senate. This will give both bills a great chance of getting passed. Kudos to RYP for doing this. Maybe this year the general consensus of the people will be reflected.

Will you be arrested for homebrewing in Mississippi? No.

When the homebrew clubs approached the president of Raise Your Pints about the homebrewing bill, our main concern was to not just legalize it but to allow for competitions and events. Mississippians who homebrew really do not gain much from adding "and beer" to the current wine law, which will only allow people to brew beer at their house. So... What is there to gain? I'm going to homebrew wether it's "legal" or not. Now with the current bill that is being submitted, the homebrew clubs will be able to host AHA sanctioned competitions, host events like Teach A Friend To Homebrew Day, Big Brew Day, etc. I've meet homebrewers in Mississippi who have told me they do not feel comfortable coming to club meetings while it is illegal. The law that's submitted should put to rest any worries that trouble homebrewers about congregating with other brewers.

 

[lpdb185]

i wasn't saying the homebrew section wasn't necessary, i was just elaborating on the question posted before mine.

as to the consensus thing, there has been a debate going on for about 400 years now about that. i didn't mean that the majority of mississippians are homebrewers, but that the majority of the people could care less if it was legal or illegal. if it is not a concern of the people, and there is no real governmental justification for it, why should it be a law? i agree with what you're saying, i think i was just misunderstood in what i said. i support the legislation 100%.

 

[lucasbm]

Sorry, just re-read my reply and I probably came across as combative. That wasn't my intention. It's the Mississippi Legislature that irritates me, not you

I understand what you're saying now, and that makes sense. It just sucks to have law makers making rules about things they clearly know nothing about.

 

[MississippiSlim]

Drinking an illegal Mississippi Homebrew right now....I wonder if it will taste as good when its legal?? LOL!

 

[Homercidal]

Drinking an illegal Mississippi Homebrew right now....I wonder if it will taste as good when its legal?? LOL!

I doubt it...

 

[Handle]

Legislation written around the interests of the masses, I would imagine, is just one of many things that has kept oppressed people from their due rights for some time, whether those people be African Americans, women, or homebrewers.

 

[lucasbm]

http://www.beertown.org/email/sylb/MSJan_10.htm

 

[lucasbm]

No dice this year. The lottery gets passed on, but not homebrewing nor the abv. Gotta love mississippi.

 

[wendelgee2]

Well folks, this isn't Mississippi...but it definitely seems to sum up the problem: