Mississippi Homebrew Legalization

[barefootbrewer]

Is it something that is heavily enforced?

Are Brewing Busts a common thing?

I have to think this dates back to the days of illegal moonshine, but the fact that you can make wine and not beer is a serious head scratcher.

How does the law differntiate between the 2? You can use fruit but not grain?

The wine law says that you can use ingredients native to Mississippi - so technically only anything grown here.

While busts are not too common for a beer brewer (but is quite possible), the law makes it quite difficult to do anything in public - such as a festival or contest. That kind of puts a damper on club events.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Update: HB passed the commitee with a 12-1 vote in Oklahoma.

 

[barefootbrewer]

AWESOME! Great for you guys!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

AWESOME! Great for you guys!

And further suggested that language be added to cover transportation for things like festivals, club events, parties, etc...

 

[deepsouth]

way to go OK!

 

[lpdb185]

if you were asking about mississippi, ^^^^^ (same as what GilaMinumBeer and deepsouth said basically).
in my years of law enforcement, i've never heard of anyone being arrested for brewing beer. i have been on a few raids with ABC to disrupt some illegally operating bars and i know they do deal with illegal distilleries. but from the best of my understanding, you really have to push the issue or be producing mass amounts in order to be arrested or fined. there are only 14 ABC agents in mississippi and they have a lot better and far more imprtant things to deal with than me making 5 gallons of homebrew on my back porch. nonetheless, it's illegal and that is a problem for people like me.

super ninja edit: apparently everyone decided to post while i was typing. Congrats to OK for making MS look even more ass backwards.

 

[deepsouth]

if you were asking about mississippi, ^^^^^ (same as what GilaMinumBeer and deepsouth said basically).
in my years of law enforcement, i've never heard of anyone being arrested for brewing beer. i have been on a few raids with ABC to disrupt some illegally operating bars and i know they do deal with illegal distilleries. but from the best of my understanding, you really have to push the issue or be producing mass amounts in order to be arrested or fined. there are only 14 ABC agents in mississippi and they have a lot better and far more imprtant things to deal with than me making 5 gallons of homebrew on my back porch. nonetheless, it's illegal and that is a problem for people like me.

super ninja edit: apparently everyone decided to post while i was typing. Congrats to OK for making MS look even more ass backwards.

are you still in law enforcement?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

super ninja edit: apparently everyone decided to post while i was typing. Congrats to OK for making MS look even more ass backwards.

Well, "if" the bill passes the house you guys will still be in leagues with Alabama. Right?

 

[gtpro]

in my years of law enforcement.

. . .a cop stickin' it to the man!? Er, since you are the man, stickin' it to yourself.

 

[lpdb185]

are you still in law enforcement?

Yes I am for now.

 

[deepsouth]

Yes I am for now.

quite the conundrum for sure.

 

[carloski44]

Been brewing for 8 months now, and just lurk around here learning all I can, but I am from Picayune MS, and didnt know its was illegal here. I get all my stuff online and from NO and until seeing this was telling everybody it is legal didnt think about state laws. What do we have to do now to get it back to a vote? anyone know

 

[lpdb185]

quite the conundrum for sure.

i also live in a dry county, but i still keep beer at the house. i don't really think it's any different than speeding or not wearing a seat belt. how do i get past the ethics of it? i just don't enforce laws that i might also violate. i'm not going to write someone a ticket for doing 10 over the speed limit when i do i might occasionally do it as well. similarly, i'm not going to arrest anyone for drinking beer in a dry county when i do it as well, quite regularly actually. i guess some people would look at that as not really doing my job, but i think of it as being equitable and fair. i'd rather be fair in selectively enforcing laws than unfair in absolutely enforcing them.

 

[deepsouth]

Been brewing for 8 months now, and just lurk around here learning all I can, but I am from Picayune MS, and didnt know its was illegal here. I get all my stuff online and from NO and until seeing this was telling everybody it is legal didnt think about state laws. What do we have to do now to get it back to a vote? anyone know

did you know we have a homebrew club on the coast? would you be interested?

 

[deepsouth]

i also live in a dry county, but i still keep beer at the house. i don't really think it's any different than speeding or not wearing a seat belt. how do i get past the ethics of it? i just don't enforce laws that i might also violate. i'm not going to write someone a ticket for doing 10 over the speed limit when i do i might occasionally do it as well. similarly, i'm not going to arrest anyone for drinking beer in a dry county when i do it as well, quite regularly actually. i guess some people would look at that as not really doing my job, but i think of it as being equitable and fair. i'd rather be fair in selectively enforcing laws than unfair in absolutely enforcing them.

true that. refreshing to hear.

 

[skadalajara]

What would I take to get a measure on the November ballot there?
Skip the legislature and go straight to the people.
Of course, the popular vote in AZ has legalized medical marijuana twice in the 8 years I've lived here, but it's still illegal.
Worth a try, in any case.

 

[rico567]

NO. making wine is legal, but brewing beer is illegal. since it's illegal, there are no retail stores for buying grain, hops, etc. we have to order our **** from out of state in order to brew.

and as to why live here, i am with deepsouth. i don't think i could leave my family behind and i know my wife wouldn't leave her family. i guess that sense of belonging and cohesion is one of the positive things about living here. now, if i had the money, i would pay to move all my family somewhere else.

Yeah- this post involves what some of us call "important things." Not legalizing homebrew isn't that important. Order your ingredients on the internet, get behind the movement to legalize if you wish, and get on with the important things in life.
Believe me, I live in the People's Republic of Illinois (aka "The Duchy of Daley"), and there are reasons a lot more significant than homebrewing (which is legal) that make me want to move out of this state. But we have our roots in this part of the country. People, blood. We've lived our lives here, our children were born here, we'll probably go into the ground here.

But before it's over, we may move back to Indiana, where we grew up....

 

[v2comp]

Sorry to hear both bills died in committee, but being from Alabama and and seeing this happen to us every year, I fell your pain. so far we have had 3 bills introduced, SB153, the Homebrewing bill is still in the Tourism and travel committee, and SB328, Brewery modernization act has come out of committe and were waiting on the house version HB406 to do the same thing.
who knows? maybe this year, maybe not..........

 

[carloski44]

did you know we have a homebrew club on the coast? would you be interested?

Yea i would be interested, would be nice to actually talk to people, and do the club thing. How do i get involved?

 

[deepsouth]

Yea i would be interested, would be nice to actually talk to people, and do the club thing. How do i get involved?

i sent you a PM.

 

[BendBrewer]

Sorry to hear both bills died in committee, but being from Alabama and and seeing this happen to us every year, I fell your pain. so far we have had 3 bills introduced, SB153, the Homebrewing bill is still in the Tourism and travel committee, and SB328, Brewery modernization act has come out of committe and were waiting on the house version HB406 to do the same thing.
who knows? maybe this year, maybe not..........

Did the committee offer any justification as to deny you the right to brew your own beer?

 

[v2comp]

Did the committee offer any justification as to deny you the right to brew your own beer?

they havent shot us down on any this year, we are still waiting to see how it shakes out. we just have bills in different stages of progress.

 

[Brewer3401]

Has anyone been "caught" doing homebrew and had any negative consequences from it ?

Will homebrew supply shops deliver to MS ?

I'm from New Orleans, so it doesn't apply here, and we have drive through daquari stores, which was almost a good idea.

 

[Daybis]

I have no problems getting homebrew supplies here in MS. It's illegal to homebrew in AL too and I know there are a handful of LHBS there, but there's no legal issue (that I know of) with buying brewing gear online and having it shipped in.

A guy was busted in AL a while back for homebrewing, but it sounds like he could have been distilling too. I'm not 100% of the facts and I haven't seen or heard any new news about him. I'm not too worried about it here in MS. I've talked to a few LEOs here and they pretty much told me I didn't have to worry about it too much, that they had better stuff to worry about. There's even a police officer that lives in the area that's a homebrewer. He chimes in on our brew club's forums occasionally.

 

[Backporchbrewery]

Wow, someone else from Columbus! I didn't know others existed, haha. You guys have a brew club?

 

[Daybis]

I'm really not in Columbus, I'm actually out in New Hope.

We sure do have a brew club and we are pretty active too. There are about 15 in the club, but only about 4-5 of us participate regularly. We meet the first Saturday of every month. We aren't very formal. We try to decide on club stuff as a group. We are registered with the AHA. The name of the club is The Golden Triangle Brewers. When we do meet, we usually brew or have a tasting session. I'll send you a PM about specifics.

 

[McMalty]

Why is it illegal to homebrew in Mississippi? I thought Jimmy Carter legalized it for everyone in 1979.

yeah, what the hell, Mississippi? Get with the freakin program.

 

[Brewer3401]

yeah, what the hell, Mississippi? Get with the freakin program.

Counties can override the Feds, except where illegal aliens are concerned.

I don't understand the concept of dry counties (or Parishes).

Just like St. Tammany parish "voted" to abolish video poker - guess what *********, you just lost revenue, and whoever wants to do it, goes to another parish.

Good idea for alcohol too - make some drunk drive to another county to get blitzed, then drive back home - real fekin great idea.

 

[McMalty]

Counties can override the Feds, except where illegal aliens are concerned.

I don't understand the concept of dry counties (or Parishes).

Just like St. Tammany parish "voted" to abolish video poker - guess what *********, you just lost revenue, and whoever wants to do it, goes to another parish.

Good idea for alcohol too - make some drunk drive to another county to get blitzed, then drive back home - real fekin great idea.

If we all stayed home and brewed our own beer, chances are we'd drink our own beer at home more often as well....thus, less drunk drivers on the road, thus more lives saved, theoretically. Mississippi is being a dick

 

[alenub]

Counties can override the Feds, except where illegal aliens are concerned.

I don't understand the concept of dry counties (or Parishes).

Just like St. Tammany parish "voted" to abolish video poker - guess what *********, you just lost revenue, and whoever wants to do it, goes to another parish.

Good idea for alcohol too - make some drunk drive to another county to get blitzed, then drive back home - real fekin great idea.

I grew up in St. Tammany parish and I did homebrew without any issues. I didn't concern myself with the technicalities of the law at all. I respected law enforcement enough to trust that they knew the law. The kind of officers who would book you for a technicality like homebrewing were the kind to nab you for running a stop sign because you didn't come to a complete stop for a full two seconds, and those officers had virtually zero chance of ever encountering a homebrewer. My backup plan was always to reason with the officer if confronted. Ask them to come back off-duty if they preferred and sample one of my homebrews, and then tell me to my face as a human being that it's still breaking the law and has a duty to book an offense. If so, fine. But they receive heaps of bad karma for that!