Repeal day
Today, the 5th of December, is the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The 21st Amendment repealed the dismal failure that was Prohibition.
While this is a cause for celebration, there are still three states in the USA that are dealing with the consequences of Prohibition - Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia are the only three states that restrict what beverages a beer drinker may enjoy, while not restricting the choices made by liquor or wine drinkers in a like fashion.
This is the heart of the paradox that Free the Hops is working to change: that, 75 years later, beer drinkers are still being punished for preferring to avoid the mass marketed tasteless beverages that still unfairly dominate the market, that domination having arisen from the ashes of Prohibition.
Enjoy repeal day. But if you are in Alabama, Mississippi, or West Virginia, don't dare to enjoy it with a fine craft beer from Colorado or Oregon, or a Belgian Trappist beer, if you are worried about breaking a mainfestly unjust and unfair law.
Why does Free the Hops need volunteers?
I had an example of that today. Free the Hops had a presence at 'Uncorked on the Green' at Ross Bridge. The event as a whole was projected to draw up to 3000 people to hear about wine, beer and food while being entertained with live music.
The beer tents were staffed by Free the Hops supporters. These are people from all walks of life: university students, young couples with children, professionals, and many more. All of these people willingly surrendered their Saturday afternoon - some at very short notice! - to help out by working hard for just under 3 hours pouring beer, talking beer, and talking Free the Hops. (Those of you who worked the brewfest will understand the work involved, even though it is also rewarding!)
To me, this is the non-profit spirit in action: willingly giving so that others can have a good time, while also educating those people about the cause.
Without volunteers, Free the Hops can achieve nothing. And I thank each and every person who came out to Ross Bridge this afternoon for making the event such a success for Free the Hops and the organizers.
Next steps for the ABV legislation
A common question I am asked when I am out and about is "when will the ABV bill come up for a vote again?".
The Alabama legislature is currently out of session, because the legislature in Alabama is a part-time body -- they're Constitutionally required to meet for no more than 30 "session days" a year. Those 30 days are usually spread out over a period of 4 months. The 2008 session ended on May 19. The next session doesn't start until February 3, 2009.
Although that may be disappointing for some to hear, the truth is that the "break" between the annual sessions gives us time to prepare -- raising money, spreading the word, and developing our lobbying strategy for the next session. It's also a nice break from all the politics. I don't know about you, but I prefer simply spreading beer culture in Alabama to participating in Montgomery politics. We're primarily a political lobbying organization for craft beer enthusiasts, but having the legislature out of session gives us an opportunity to hold events and teach people about good beer.
Raising money and spreading the word usually go hand in hand. The annual Magic City Brewfest is currently our biggest fundraiser and our most public event. However, we also throw smaller events (some that raise money, many that don't) throughout the year. These include beer tastings and beer dinners at local businesses, fundraising events, joint events with other organizations, and both public and member gatherings. These events, as well as chapter and statewide membership meetings, are usually posted on the FTH Calendar http://www.freethehops.org/calendar/.
Just a sample of events we are involved in -- the Birmingham Chapter joined the Alys Stevens Center and Reg's Coffee House to host a craft beer tasting at inter-ART-ive
http://alysstephens.uab.edu/lineup/specialevents/43242/.
In Huntsville, local FTH members got together to enjoy the Redstone Arsenal Oktoberfest http://www.redstonemwr.com/promo-events/oktoberfest.html, which supports that base's MWR program. Other events and gatherings are normally held somewhere in Alabama every month. These kind of events often require volunteers, and I'd like to once again encourage you to contact your local chapter organizers if you'd like to help (or just attend) our local events. Chapters are located in Birmingham, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and Mobile.
The ways we're preparing for our lobbying efforts in 2009 are a little less glamorous. Since this is a public blog, I won't go into all the details at this point, but we are working on literature and educational sessions with members of the legislature. We've also completed initial development of a web portal to educate our members and supporters about their state senator and representative, including their voting record on our legislation and their estimated level of support. We plan to release details of that web tool in a future newsletter.
So although we're in a legislative break, there's still plenty of opportunities to help out, have fun, and spread beer culture in your community. There's a lot of work to be done before we need to start again with the Montgomery politics!
Free the Hops!
Stuart Carter, President
Free the Hops | Alabamians for Specialty Beer
Magic City Brewfest 2008 final thoughts
Danner has published a very long synopsis of the good things and the not so good things at the brewfest website which is well worth a read. We are totally committed to making the Magic City Brewfest an event which all of Alabama can be proud of, and we are doing that by listening to you, the attendees of the event, and working to correct the problems that happen when running an event of this size.
Thank you all so much for making MCBF2008 such a great weekend!
Magic City Brewfest 2008
This is just a short post to say a huge THANK YOU to our event sponsors - the breweries and wholesalers, the food vendors - to the bands, and especially to our volunteers who gave up part of their weekend to come and work extremely hard to make sure every attendee had a great time.
Unfortunately we had problems with the crowds on the Saturday night, and it is especially disappointing that people who had paid tickets had problems getting in. This is something we are already looking into so that we can do it better next year. Those of you who braved the weather and still had fun on Sunday will have seen some of the changes already, so that Magic City Brewfest 2009 can be even bigger and better!
We were failed by the senate
Last year the Gourmet Beer Bill was given the "Shroud Award" for the "deadest bill of the session".
This year members and supporters of Free the Hops rallied around magnificently and carried out a sustained effort of education on the issues, such that every single legislator in the Alabama Legislature heard about Gourmet Beer and knew what the real issues were.
We were failed by the Senate. They spent the entire session in petty bickering, being too busy scoring political points to do the job we pay them to do. An entire legislative session squandered in point-scoring instead of dealing with the very grave legislative issues that were before them.
The senate didn't deal with the education budget. They didn't deal with removing the 4% grocery tax. They didn't deal with the smoking ban. They didn't deal with a bill to prevent large corporations avoiding paying Alabama taxes. They didn't deal with a bill to exempt the Federal Stimulus Check from Alabama taxation.
It is time for you, the people of Alabama, to feel outraged at this. The senators behaved in a way that brings shame on the state, and they need to learn that their actions have consequences on their own political careers.
Let me be blunt here: the issue is not that the senators failed to deal with Gourmet Beer. The issue is that they failed you, the people of Alabama - and that failure needs to be punished.
Call, email, or write your senator. Tell them how you feel about their dismal failure to achieve anything this year. Tell them how you feel about their poor representation of you on the national political field. Tell them how you feel about them confirming everyone's prejudices about our great state.
Tell them you will remember that all they achieved in 2007 was to vote themselves a huge pay rise.
Above all, tell them that in 2010 you will remember their failures in 2007 and 2008. And that voluntary failure is not acceptable.
Find your senator:
http://capwiz.com/state-al/dbq/zs.dbq
Monday May 19
For those who were listening in to the Senate audio last week, it will come as no surprise that we took the strategic decision to hold off on pressing the Gourmet Beer Bill. By the time the semi-filibuster was resolved, it was late in the evening and the Senators were all cranky, tired, and hungry.
In that kind of environment our Gourmet Beer Bill would not have had good odds.
Mark your calendars for Monday, May 19th. This is the last day of the legislative session. HB196, the Gourmet Beer Bill, will be on the calendar. Please call your senators over the next week, and very politely request them to support HB196, the Gourmet Beer Bill. You can call them whether or not you have done so already. You could also ask your friends, co-workers, family, neighbours, anyone you know who is not anti-alcohol - they, too can call their senators.
If you have family and friends who are out of state, get them to call as well - their opinion, and the tourist dollars that backs their opinion, are just as important to the senators as you and your opinion are.
If we all pull together, if we all rally our connections and contacts, we can achieve the aim we have been working towards for the last three years - we can start to Free those Hops from the chains of the archaic 6% ABV law. Let the Alabama Senate hear your voices loud and clear - let them hear the message -
FREE THE HOPS!