Didn’t take long to find something goofier than the fact that Abita can’t sell its beer brewed to raise funds for oil spill relief in two of the states most damaged by BP’s negligence.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has made a decision that seems just about as anti-homebrewing as it can be in a state that until this week seemed to be the most small-batch beer friendly one in the country.
Lisa Morrison and Jeff Alworth have the details about how the OLCC ruling shutdown the homebrew competition for the Oregon State Fair. Among other things. Like homebrewers not being allowed to bring homebrew to homebrew meetings.
I’m in Florida and the laws here are clearly engineered to help the big beer companies. Reform to allow home brewing came late compared to a lot of states, but it did finally get here. Now, there are multiple efforts underway to continue to make legislative changes to help the home-brewer, the nano-brewer and the micro-brewer.
It is very sad to see such a stance taken in a state that has done so much to pioneer the way for the rest of us. I hope that all the home-brewers, as well as the micro-brewers, get together and push through changes to close this loophole. In addition, let those who are enforcing this law know that they can’t count on the votes of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by their decision.
We all need to be proactive and take back our government.