Ridiculous local brew laws, pro or home?

[KIAKillerXJ]

awesome news guys in CA!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/189621024/Classe-Final-Recommendations-20131204

 

[JohnSand]

Seems the problem is solved. But let me add that New York State, a famously difficult place to open or operate business, is actively encouraging microbreweries. And I think it can be explained by one word: revenue. Beer is taxed at every step, craft brewing is growing by leaps and bounds, Albany wants a cut. So if you petition change, let the elected know what's in it for them: more jobs, thriving small business, and most of all, TAX MONEY!

 

[rico567]

These threads come along from time to time, and generally read the same. Being upset about federal/state/local ordinances is a waste of energy. When the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st in 1933, it did not simply open the door to alcohol production at will. Crucial to repeal was the principle of "local option" which it left it up to states, on down to counties or even the smallest municipalities how they would address production/sale/consumption of alcohol. And -you guessed it- that means there's a different bureaucracy at every level of government waiting to shove a pile of forms, and fees, fees, and more fees at you. A local micro that's just starting its second year was very well planned and thought through, had a lawyer as one of the three partners guiding every step of the startup, and they were still held up six months beyond their projected opening.

If someone wants to change this, the best way to start is probably not to call them "stupid." There is a process for change, however dim* the prospects for success. Either try to change the way government administers alcohol, or follow the steps required in your locality to legalize your commercial brewing operation.

* I state that the prospects are "dim" because government at different levels has counted on revenue from alcohol production (well, except for the years 1919-1933), and regulating the industry and collecting the taxes requires a bureaucracy, and all bureaucracies are completely invulnerable when it comes to their procedures. You will jump through all the hoops, because that's how bureaucrats justify their existence.

 

[crawforc3]

(1) The brewpub premises must be located in an historic building or site as defined in Section 40-8-1, in a wet county or wet municipality, in which county beer was brewed for public consumption prior to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919.

http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/codeofalabama/1975/28-4A-3.htm



What?

 

[JohnSand]

Wow.