Kansas Homebrewers - CALL TO ACTION - Another Attempt at Law Changes

[AmandaK]

Several clubs in Kansas are banding together to push for homebrew law changes in the State. Please, we need your help to contact your representative to gain their support for House Substitute for HB2223. We tried to push this bill through last year and will push harder this year.

This is the BA press release for the 2014 Bill: http://www.craftbeer.com/action-alerts/attention-kansas-homebrewers-2

Things we cannot do in Kansas:

• We cannot bring homebrew outside of our homes. This means no club meetings, no tastings, etc.
• We cannot serve our homebrew to people outside of our "immediate family".
• We cannot host homebrew competitions.

We are aiming to get these things changed. Why? Because we love homebrew and want to share it!

A lot of you know that I am getting married at the end of this year. You know what's illegal for me? I cannot serve my fiance the beer that we brew together as we do not meet the legal definition of 'immediate family'. How ludicrous is that? We brew together, but I cannot serve it to him. Ridiculous.

We also cannot host competitions. This is not a huge issue for my club, as we reside on the State Line and can jump to Missouri, but it is a huge deal for all of the homebrewers in the middle of the state who just want a little feedback on their beers.

I urge those of you who are Kansas residents to contact your Representative and help change the laws!

Find your representatives here by your address: http://openkansas.org/

[AmandaK]

Post for update to the status of this bill from the lobbyist:

House leadership says bill will likely be up for vote on Tuesday (tomorrow). Please keep contacting your reps!

[garyg]

Indeed, it seems the bill is going to move fast.  It must be passed by the House, which sounds like it will vote on it tomorrow, in order to move on to the Senate.

[AmandaK]

Gary, thank you for sending out an action alert. I was pleased to see that in my inbox.

[HoosierBrew]

A perfect example of the real value of AHA membership.

[AmandaK]

A perfect example of the real value of AHA membership.

Amen!

[duboman]

Hope it goes through as an Alum of the JayHawk Nation! And.......Congratulations on your upcoming marriage Amanda!

[udubdawg]

I may or may not have had lunch with Amanda/broken some laws by delivering some homebrew entries to her today...
 
C'mon Kansas, let's fix this...

[AmandaK]

Session was canceled today due to snow, will be voted on tomorrow (Wednesday) now.

[garyg]

From what I heard, Thursday is the likely day for a vote, so still time to contact representatives before the vote.

[udubdawg]

we've contacted many, many reps.  Dozens have responded, generally favorably, when presented with the facts and our fairly innocuous goals.  KS Craft Brewers Guild supports us too.  We'll see...

[AmandaK]

From our lobbyist:
Sub HB 2223 was just passed to Final Action by voice vote. Congratulations! This is the next step, there will be a FA(Final Action) vote on Monday, if/when it passes it is on to the Senate. Time to renew messages to the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee and the entire Senate.

Phil

[AmandaK]

HB 2223 passed on House Final Action this morning! We are going to the Senate!!

111 yea to 7 nay.  Sounds like 7 people need a homebrew. 

[udubdawg]

bunch of amendments with nothing to do with homebrewing added onto our bill in Senate Committee today.  Also so glad they clarified what a "guest" is.   

progress, I guess.

[reverseapachemaster]

bunch of amendments with nothing to do with homebrewing added onto our bill in Senate Committee today.  Also so glad they clarified what a "guest" is.   

progress, I guess.

Unless an amendment was added to kill the bill, this is just how legislation occurs. Have to get the pork on the bill to pick up the votes. Consider it a good sign that the bill will probably pass the senate.