Alabama Homebrew Legislation 2013

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I can't imagine you getting 6 months unless you're WAY over as Federal law allows for significantly more. The fine they might try to levy the max just because it's free money.
 
Accidic said:
I can't imagine you getting 6 months unless you're WAY over as Federal law allows for significantly more. The fine they might try to levy the max just because it's free money.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. For example, the max penalty for your first DUI is a year in jail. I haven't heard of that happening, but maybe if you crash through the wall of the courthouse...

Assuming someone shows up to search your house, they won't know if you are just a bit over unless they pour out all your beer into their own graduated containers. That might just qualify as unreasonable search and seizure.
 
Accidic said:
I can't imagine you getting 6 months unless you're WAY over as Federal law allows for significantly more. The fine they might try to levy the max just because it's free money.
Click to expand...

The guy recently prosecuted for home brewing in Blount County had his charge reduced to class c misdemeanor from felony. Most likely violators of the new law could also plea bargain to a reduced charge. The big expense would be lawyer fees and potential loss of professional licensure (not likely since this is not a crime of moral turpitude).
 
alestateyall said:
The guy recently prosecuted for home brewing in Blount County had his charge reduced to class c misdemeanor from felony. Most likely violators of the new law could also plea bargain to a reduced charge. The big expense would be lawyer fees and potential loss of professional licensure (not likely since this is not a crime of moral turpitude).
Click to expand...

Actually, they never planned to prosecute him for homebrewing, but for distilling. It seems that when they realized they didn't actually have evidence for any distilling, they reduced it to possession of a prohibited beverage in a dry county. One article said that they decided to search his home because he'd been caught with marijuana, but I think I read somewhere else that a neighbor called thinking he might have a meth lab.
 
Orthobrewsky said:
Actually, they never planned to prosecute him for homebrewing, but for distilling. It seems that when they realized they didn't actually have evidence for any distilling, they reduced it to possession of a prohibited beverage in a dry county. One article said that they decided to search his home because he'd been caught with marijuana, but I think I read somewhere else that a neighbor called thinking he might have a meth lab.
Click to expand...

If you're ever down in Montgomery, stop in at Railyard Brewing, have a few beers and chat with him. Kade is the brewer there and he's a good guy.

They are very homebrewer friendly.
 
alestateyall said:
These Right to Brew glasses are gonna be collectors items. Better get one while they are still around.

12312342-large.jpg
Click to expand...

When I passed out the cases that I passed out, I told them "We want you to serve in these to help get the word out. DON'T give them away please! That keeps the message from being seen by more people. Once we are legal, or the session is over, feel free to give them away."

Visit your favorite watering hole, buy a few pints, and ask if you can keep the glass. (Might be a good idea to throw a $5 in the tip jar first.)
 
4nabas said:
I can't imagine that the 15 gal limit law will really be enforced. How would they know if a person is brewing?
Click to expand...

Lots of ways. Brewing outdoors. Neighbor calls in "meth" activity or "still" activity or "marijuana" activity from hop vines.
 
Huff360 said:
When I passed out the cases that I passed out, I told them "We want you to serve in these to help get the word out. DON'T give them away please! That keeps the message from being seen by more people. Once we are legal, or the session is over, feel free to give them away."

Visit your favorite watering hole, buy a few pints, and ask if you can keep the glass. (Might be a good idea to throw a $5 in the tip jar first.)
Click to expand...

If anyone gets a hold of some of these I'd love to have just one. I have no problem paying for the glass and covering shipping. I collect glass tumblers that are beer related. I'm dead serious about this.
 
Orthobrewsky said:
"It was just legalized yesterday evening (Alabama was last again), but somehow I already have all this equipment. What's this? My Oktoberfest lager is past primary fermentation? It's a miracle! There's no other explanation!"
Click to expand...

Call it divine intervention. That'll really piss ALCAP off :D
 
Accidic said:
I can't imagine you getting 6 months unless you're WAY over as Federal law allows for significantly more. The fine they might try to levy the max just because it's free money.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for letting me know I'm back from being a felon! :rockin:

What are the Fed limits, just for grins?

Thanks,
 
I may or may not be getting to go to Avondale tonight, and I'm going to attempt to get one of those glasses. I've been lusting after 'em since they came out.
 
The purpose of most laws are not to protect but rather to harass. In simple terms, you would have to give them excuse to search or them be there for something else and this turn out to be one of the reasons they find to harass/pressure you to fulfill whatever agenda they're pressing.

The 15g/quarter is not a lot different than the 100/200g limits. It lets politicians feel good about it and gives them talk off points (we only voted to allow a case to be made every 2 weeks....). Fact is any teen worth their salt learns to make alcohol easily in HS biology.

Truthfully, I'm amazed it succeeded in this religion dictates law state. I realize the bible does not speak negatively of it but anyone who's lived here more than a month can show you people that would claim otherwise.
 
Accidic said:
[snip]

Truthfully, I'm amazed it succeeded in this religion dictates law state. I realize the bible does not speak negatively of it but anyone who's lived here more than a month can show you people that would claim otherwise.
Click to expand...

Yea, I remember about 10 years ago, Madison city voted on whether or not to allow Sunday alcohol sales and alcohol in restaurants. From the way the preachers were going on about it, you'd have thought that a couple hundred children per week were going to die from drunk drivers caused by the change in law.

'Course none of it happened and the city has grown like gangbusters since them - which is a pity due to all the crappy traffic now, but that's another *****-fest.

I pitched another 6 gallons of SP the other day, back to being illegal again!
 
Medicbrewer said:
I never thought it would happen but I'm glad it did! Now,for my first legal batch, how about .....

Emancipated Amber Ale!
Click to expand...
That name has other connotations in Alabama and the rest of the Deep South.
 
Grats to Alabama Homebrewers!! I didn't even know it was illegal to homebrew in any state in today's age. It is actually kind of crazy to think about that currently I could be arrested for the contents of my bathtub (4 x 6.5 gallon carboys) in Alabama :drunk:

Regardless, reading this thread honestly made feel a little emotional when I finally read the verdict. I am a sucker for a good underdog!
 
Roughster said:
Grats to Alabama Homebrewers!! I didn't even know it was illegal to homebrew in any state in today's age. It is actually kind of crazy to think about that currently I could be arrested for the contents of my bathtub (4 x 6.5 gallon carboys) in Alabama :drunk:

Regardless, reading this thread honestly made feel a little emotional when I finally read the verdict. I am a sucker for a good underdog!
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree. I live in Alabama and didn't know homebrewing was illegal until I joined this forum. That was only several weeks ago.
 
I'm really happy for Fairview Homebrew. I'm otherwise very glad this finally passed, but the difference for me is mostly a psychological one. There could also be convenience issues for me, such a eventually getting a LHBS closer than an hour and a half away. For Fairveiw, this saved their business and must be quite a relief.
 
Orthobrewsky said:
I'm really happy for Fairview Homebrew. I'm otherwise very glad this finally passed, but the difference for me is mostly a psychological one. There could also be convenience issues for me, such a eventually getting a LHBS closer than an hour and a half away. For Fairveiw, this saved their business and must be quite a relief.
Click to expand...

Seriously, and I don't think that can be overemphasized. They were very nearly the sacrificial lamb. Does anyone know if they do mail order? I usually get my stuff elsewhere, but would like to throw an order or two their way as sort of a "thanks" and show of support for their ordeal.

By the way, a friend of mine works for one of the big online brew supplies and told me that Alabama is their #1 state for shipping LOL
 
It's funny how this has changed my out look on this hobby. I never really tried to hide the fact that is homebrewing but now that it is legal I kind of feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
In the back of my mind was always the idea that the cops might come to my house for nothing serious but find my brew supply room filled with strange looking contraptions(my BIAB rig, mash tun coolers), Mason jars with pressure sterilized water (for yeast starters), 10 or more gallon jugs of distilled (brewing) water, cases of empty beer bottles, cases of full beers bottles, assorted lengths and sizes of hoses and tubing, two deep freezers with external controllers (fermenting cabinets), assorted glass and plastic containers of all sizes (glass and plastic carboys), a funny looking copper coil (wort chiller), several 5 gallon buckets with lots of unmilled grain, odd looking measuring and testing equipment.
I don't have to worry about losing my brewing equipment or my job or my livelihood anymore.
 
wailingguitar said:
Seriously, and I don't think that can be overemphasized. They were very nearly the sacrificial lamb. Does anyone know if they do mail order? I usually get my stuff elsewhere, but would like to throw an order or two their way as sort of a "thanks" and show of support for their ordeal.

By the way, a friend of mine works for one of the big online brew supplies and told me that Alabama is their #1 state for shipping LOL
Click to expand...

That's funny and not surprising.

I was thinking the same thing about placing an order from Fairview. They are online and they do ship. They only lost a week of business and it will be booming with all the celebratory brews, but I think they need some extra consolation to make up for the intense stress they must have had that week.

They have a FaceBook page, so we could all at least "like" them for a little advertising and moral support.
 
There were actually 2 homebrew shops here in Montgomery until earlier this year. Fairview is one of them that opened fairly recently. There was another one that was open for 3 or 4 years (Deep South Brew), that was given some sort of trouble at the beginning of the year and forced to close. He was hoping it was temporary but as it's now May I'm guessing that's not the case. I can't help but wonder if what they did to Deep South is what they were planning on doing to Fairview. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with Fairview either. The guy there is incredibly nice and helpful, the other store I had just been using since before he opened and it was on my way home.
 
aubiecat said:
In the back of my mind was always the idea that the cops might come to my house for nothing serious but find my brew supply room filled with strange looking contraptions
Click to expand...

Now that we are legal I don't mind sharing this. On Christmas day 2012 some high winds coupled with a shoddy (now fixed) deadbolt caused our front door to open and set off our alarm. We were out of town as was anyone else we could call to go by the house to check everything out and make sure we weren't actually being robbed, so our only choice was to have ADT send Pelham's finest to the house. All of my fermenters were covered with trashbags and towels to keep the sunlight out, and a lot of my smaller brewing items are stored on open shelves in my kitchen. We returned to find that the coverings had been lifted and were bunched up on top of each fermenter so obviously they gave everything the once over. We were quite concerned for a couple of weeks that we would hear a knock on the door from a cop with a search warrant, but fortunately that never happened.

I figure either the cops who searched the house either didn't know about the law or just didn't care. Either way I'm glad nothing else came of it.
 
Accidic said:
There were actually 2 homebrew shops here in Montgomery until earlier this year. Fairview is one of them that opened fairly recently. There was another one that was open for 3 or 4 years (Deep South Brew), that was given some sort of trouble at the beginning of the year and forced to close. He was hoping it was temporary but as it's now May I'm guessing that's not the case. I can't help but wonder if what they did to Deep South is what they were planning on doing to Fairview. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with Fairview either. The guy there is incredibly nice and helpful, the other store I had just been using since before he opened and it was on my way home.
Click to expand...

I don't think I was aware of the thing with Deep South, if I had heard that, I forgot... my brain is like Swiss Cheese sometimes.
 

Similar threads

Happyflowerlady
Alabama lady learning to make kombucha.
Replies
8
Views
539
T Murph
T Murph
MMP126
Homebrewers Hop Quality
Replies
10
Views
874
ncbrewer
N
J
Non-alcoholic homebrew - buzzed feeling?
Replies
7
Views
567
mashdar
mashdar
wsmith1625
Atlantic Brew Supply Podcast
Replies
1
Views
522
3 Dawg Night
3 Dawg Night
bigken462
Current state of craft homebrewing hobby
Replies
24
Views
2K
Conehead
Conehead

Latest posts

Back
Top