Amazing!! Are they going to raid the kitchen supply stores too because they sell pots big enough to brew beer?
I do enjoy the soundbites from the legislature but would gladly give them up if they would just legalize homebrewing in Alabama and free our "criminal" brothers and sisters.
Then you might as well raid Wal-Mart too. I bought a large colander/mesh strainer there that I use to filter wort as I pour it into primary. We can't be selling that kind of stuff, after all.
Does anyone else think it is at least slightly strange that it is apparently perfectly OK to purchase beer and wine "pre-homebrewed" at a large brewery/factory but it is not OK to brew at home. That is like saying it is OK to buy a hamburger at McDonalds, but if you fire up your grill at home, we are going to come confiscate your ground sirloin. It makes absolutely no sense at all.
you're looking at it from the standpoint of an informed brewer, not someone who doesn't understand what we do.
Just listen to some of the comments among their legislature as they've debated this in the past.
"This bill allows, I believe, to any individual, to make up to A HUNDRED GALLONS per year...without any licensure, without any oversight by any government entity...they can transport it, supposedly to wine tasting events, to festivals...who's going to monitor that? You know we have people that live on the street, that go into your local general store, and buy SHAVING LOTION, for a high. Anything they can get, if it's cheap enough, they'll buy."
that's from Representative Richard Laird in 2011, and is far from the worst-informed opinion out there. He mentions moonshine later on and is clearlyt thinking about it and drawing parallels to bootleggers with his comments. He talks about the possibility of a guy he knows creating an event where he invites the neighborhood to come over and drink his beer, wine, cider, mead -"whatever that is." A beer tasting/party at your house - The horror! He says individual instead of adult, doesn't get the amount right, doesn't understand a thing about how expensive homebrewing is, draws parallels to the homeless, the tone of his voice shows he is aghast that there is no oversight, and at the amounts of alcohol a person could make, either ignores or doesn't know that it is legal in 48 other states (a "we don't need to be like the rest of the country" mentality seems to be pretty common too).
Remember when either Alabama or Mississippi was talking about raising the alcohol limit and we had the same type of legislators horrified that they were going to have "90% alcohol beer!" - clearly showing a lack of knowledge. When legislators have these kinds of strong opinions about an issue they know little or nothing about (or are doing a damn fine job acting dumb to make the bill look worse...) you can see what an uphill battle it is. The bill in question includes mead but more than one of them didn't know what mead is - how about figuring that out before you denounce it?
"What going to stop people from making moonshine in their house?" is a common base argument too.
I feel for the homebrewers in those two states. Hopefully they get this silliness fixed before too much longer...
cheers--
--Michael