Alabama is one of three states, including Mississippi and West Virginia, that limits the amount of alcohol by volume (ABV) in containers of beer. Currently, Alabama limits ABV in beer at 6 percent but a "gourmet beer bill" would raise those limits to 13.9 percent. Non-profit Free the Hops is lobbying for the bill, while the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP) is opposed to it.This debate has been going on for over two years. In 2008 the legislation narrowly passed the Alabama House of Representatives, but stalled in the Senate like many bills this year. This bill and many others suffered defeat not by democratic vote, but from an inactive state legislature.
Supporters of this "gourmet beer bill" generally argue that there are higher alcohol volumes in wine and hard liquor so why not beer? They feel this is an unjust restriction of consumer freedom. Opponents of increasing ABV in beer generally argue that beer is the drink of choice to teenagers and that one container of beer at 13.9% could technically get a teenager drunk. I interviewed representatives from Free the Hops and the Alabama Citizens Action Program, as well as the Birmingham-based band, Honeybaked, active supporters this beer-battered legislation.
Alabama Citizens Action Program, is a non-profit which bills themselves as "Alabama's Moral Compass," is opposed to the gourmet beer bill. Dr. Bill Day, education director of ALCAP said: "Alcohol is the major drug problem in America, I think most people are aware of that." Dr. Joe Godfrey, executive director of ALCAP, said: "With young people beer is beer. They're not going to care whether it's gourmet or anything else. But what that tells us is that with one container of beer, in the body of a student, will make them legally drunk." ALCAP is a member of the American Council of Alcohol Problems which is pushing anti-alcohol legislation in 37 other states.
The sole mission of non-profit Free the Hops is to change Alabama's beer law to allow for the sale of beers with higher than 6% alcohol by volume. Stuart Carter, founder, said: "People who like wine can go into a grocery store and buy three liters of wine at 14.9% alcohol. Those who like liquor can go into a store owned and operated by the state of Alabama and buy vodka, buy cognac, buy pure grain alcohol up to 95% alcohol by volume. Those of us who like beer cannot buy a beer brewed by Trappist Monks because it has too much alcohol in it; it's 8%. We cannot buy Sweetwater IPA brewed in Georgia because it's 6.5% alcohol. This makes no sense. It's a completely strange restriction on consumer choice." Chip Davis, events coordinator and treasurer of Free the Hops, said: "As a person that has grown up here in Alabama, it's disheartening to see that we're one of the last states in the nation that have had to deal with these laws of what beers we can and cannot drink."
A few lawmakers in Montgomery recently attended a beer tasting in which gourmet beers from around the globe were sampled, including many well over the 6% legal limit. State Rep. Johnny Morrow said: "I would hope that nobody breaks in the door in here and arrests anyone."
I'll just have a water. Cheers from Alabama.
For MTV Choose or Lose Street Team 2008, this is David Whiteside