Yes I realize that’s quite a headline, but it looks like agents from the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board raided Hop City in Birmingham Alabama and confiscated their Homebrewing supplies. Hope City was planning a soft opening that will now be delayed. Is it illegal to home brew in Alabama….Yes! Details from AL.com:
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The owner of a small beer, wine, and homebrewing supply chain says three agents from the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board raided his unopened store late Thursday afternoon and took $7,000 worth of home beer brewing supplies, including boxes of beer brewing kits, carboys, immersion chillers, and books about brewing.
The agents took the equipment used to brew beer, but Torres said they left the ingredients used in beer brewing -- grain, hops, and yeast -- in the store.
"They said they'll be back at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning and everything had to be -- everything, every pellet of hops, every kernel of grain -- had to be out of the store before they'd be willing to consider our license," Torres said. He said he now plans to get those ingredients out of his unopened store, which is located on 2nd Avenue South near Pepper Place, and take them back to his other location in Atlanta Thursday night.
Torres said he did "a very large amount of due diligence" before purchasing the homebrewing equipment to sell in his store. He said he doesn't believe that it is illegal to sell homebrewing equipment, although it is illegal to brew beer at home in Alabama.
Free The Hops Issues Statement:
Several weeks ago we made an announcement that although Free The Hops will be advocating for new legislation during the 2013 Alabama legislative session, we will not be taking on homebrewing legalization. As we pointed out then, a devoted group of homebrewers called Right To Brew has been working on that issue for several years and are on the cusp of success. We believe their efforts will very likely cross the finish line next year, so we’ll take the lead on another issue and simply lend our support to them wherever possible on the homebrew issue.
Perhaps you don’t homebrew and don’t really see what the big deal is. Well, the importance of homebrew legalization just came into focus for a lot of people when news broke that Birmingham ABC enforcement agents raided Hop City Craft Beer & Wine and confiscated $7,000 of homebrewing equipment.
This issue doesn’t just matter to homebrewers, it matters to small businesses who will lose out on revenue they could otherwise be making off equipment and ingredients for making beer and wine. And it matters to the future of local breweries in our state because most craft brewers start out homebrewing.
Free The Hops supports the efforts of Right To Brew 100% and we hope you will, too. Subscribe to their newsletter. Let your state Representative and Senator know of your support for legalizing homebrewing so Alabama can join the 48 other states where stores can sell brew kettles without fear of armed government agents raiding them. And we in FTH will do whatever we can to assist in the effort.
This ridiculous law needs to change as soon as possible. Let’s make 2013 the year. [FreeTheHops]
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