[tommeier]

Disappointed to give the news, but our homebrew legalization effort failed, again.  In its fourth year.    Final corrected tally was 27 yeas and 47 nays.  It was not even close, so it is going to be very hard to get support next year.

Alabama Homebrewers are all still felons.  The state can take possession of all buildings and land on the property where they made the homebrew. If convicted of homebrewing, even in a wet county, the minimum sentence is a felony with 1 year hard labor...   And Alabama legislators are ok with that.

They say we should be thinking of our chillrens and ought not to be exposing them to 100 gallons of beer in our home and throwing underage parties.  They say without a license who is going to make sure we don't make people sick.   They say we are a low class of people.   They say where I come from we call that boot legging.   

[quest4watneys]

I'm from Indiana where our laws are pretty liberal and it's mind-boggling to me that there is such disparity in the law throughout the country. I've brewed several batches of home brew and never had any inclination to throw an underage party! Don't give up the fight!

[dannyjed]

Sorry to hear about this  Sounds like these legislators need some education on homebrewing.

[maxieboy]

Unbelievable... 

[tumarkin]

This has got to be incredibly discouraging. Really sorry to hear this, but keep going, this needs to be changed.

What can we do as the AHA to help? I know the approach is generally to try and rally local voters to write/call their legislators, but maybe next time we should organize a nation wide campaign. The eyes of America are on you, Alabama.  

[jamminbrew]

It's amazing how close minded people can be. Never ceases to amaze me. Never underestimte the power of stupidity, especially when they are in high places.

[passlaku]

This is depressing. These social conservatives will eventually drive us all out of this state. 

[tschmidlin]

Really sorry to hear this Tom.  That is really unbelievable to me.  What is to stop you from buying a keg and throwing an underage party?  These legislators are an embarrassment. 

[jamminbrew]

I'll bet that every legislator who voted against this bill all drink wine...

[tommeier]

Mark, a National Campaign is more likely to just tick off legislators.  Last year the beer distributors stopped our bill to put their thumbprint on it, but after working things out with them, they were not against us this year, and we managed to actually come up for a vote.

This was a straight-up vote with no external political influence on the vote this time, that we know of.  That is why it was such a huge setback.. It is going to be hard to get a bill sponsor next year, and I'd say we are probably now years away from passing.     Unless we get a $100,000 donation to make campaign contributions I don't see anything changing next year.

[tschmidlin]

Tom, have you tried organizing with the home wine makers in Alabama to get more support?  This sucks man, sorry.

[tommeier]

We tried reaching out the wine makers, but didn't even get one single person to help or respond.
Actually as the audio file will show, inclusion of wine probably hurt our chances this year.  They kept quoting the high alcohol content of wine during the floor debate.

One thing that may help is to take wine out of the bill next time around.

By the way, a kilo of marijuana is a misdemeanor, but being in possession of a single pint of homebrew is a felony.   It is also a felony to have any equipment that could be used or has been used to make beer or wine.  Like say, a large pot...

[tschmidlin]

Maybe you can get some people arrested for possession of a crab pot.

[tommeier]

@quest4watneys:  It wasn't long ago Indiana fought this battle too.  And also faced opposition. Be sure and thank your Indiana homebrewing elders, like Paul Hayslett and others, who worked to legalize Indiana back in 1999 or so..  It is not an easy process at all.

We certainly have the toughest nut to crack, except for maybe Mississippi.  As we say in Alabama "thank God for Mississippi" else we'd be ranked 50th in everything instead of 49th.

[euge]

Man that's awful.Twenty-First Century and we still got crazy blue laws in the South.