Alabama Gourmet Beer Bill

A two-year effort to legalize some of the world's finest and most expensive beers in Alabama is coming to a head.
On Monday, the final day of the 2008 legislative session, the Senate will decide whether to pass a bill that would more than double the amount of alcohol allowed in beer in Alabama.

The bill is being pushed by an Alabama-based group called Free the Hops. A similar effort they made in the 2007 legislative session went flat.

The current try could also have trouble getting past filibuster-minded opponents Monday, and the state's governor, who doesn't drink, said he doesn't normally favor bills that could expand alcohol use.

Free the Hops President Stuart Carter of Birmingham said the group has tried to show legislators that the bill's advocates are not "rednecks who want to get drunk." Instead, they talk about how Alabama's beer laws are much stricter than most other states and how many of the foreign auto executives who move to Alabama can't buy some of the beers popular in their home countries.

"We believe our members and supporters have done a great job on letting the senators know how important gourmet beer is to them," said Carter, who described his volunteer group as a grass roots effort not associated with beer companies.

If Free the Hops succeeds, it hopes to pop the tops on some previously unavailable beers at its Magic City Brewfest in Birmingham on May 31 and June 1.

Opponents of the bill say they fear what would happen if the more potent beers got into the hands of teenagers.
"Beer is the drink of choice of underage drinkers," said Dan Ireland, executive director of the American Council on Alcohol Problems.

"One of those beers could intoxicate the average-size teenager with that much alcohol in it," he added.
Ireland, a Southern Baptist minister from Birmingham, heads the group that was known as the Temperance League for many years. Through affiliates in 37 states, it seeks to reduce alcohol advertising and consumption.
In March, Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, got the House to pass a bill that would raise the alcohol limit on beer sold in Alabama from 6.0 percent to 13.9 percent. His bill will be pending in the Senate on Monday. If it doesn't pass, it's dead for this session.

Free the Hops says the 6.0 percent limit keeps about one-third of the world's beer styles out of Alabama. These include Trappist beers from Belgium, Russian imperial stouts, and many beers from small American breweries, such as Midas Touch of Delaware.

Many beers banned in Alabama are available next door in Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia have the nation's lowest alcohol limit on beer at 6.0 percent, Carter said.

The chairman of the agenda-setting Senate Rules Committee, Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said the Senate has to turn its attention first Monday to the state education budget and some measures to fund the budget. After that is out of the way, he plans to present a work agenda of many other bills, including the gourmet beer measure.

Barron said he's concerned the bill will meet opponents, who will threaten to filibuster it. If that happens, the Senate may pass over it and move on to other bills without opposition, he said.

"It won't take a great deal of talking on the final day to create danger for a piece of legislation," Barron said.
Carter said he's confident the bill will pass if it can get up for a vote. "However, in politics, there is nothing certain until the day is done, so we will be on tenterhooks on the day," he said.

Even if the Senate were to join the House in approving the bill, it would still have to be signed by Gov. Bob Riley before taking effect.

Riley, who doesn't drink alcohol, said he normally doesn't look favorably on bills expanding alcohol.
"I'm probably going to have a problem with that," he told The Associated Press.<!--QuoteEnd-->