Prohibition Era Booze Laws Brew Trouble

On April 7 (my birthday - no wonder I'm such a beer geek!), 1933 (not my birthyear), Prohibition was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% ABV, eight months before the ratification of the 21st amendment (which repealed the 18th amendment).

Here we are some seventy-five years later, and several states in this great country of ours still have Prohibition era laws on the books regarding the brewing of beer and serving of alcohol. Here's a few that were mentioned in a recent AOL news article:

• A few weeks ago Idaho lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal a law created way back in 1939, a law that bans distilled liquor sales on election days. According to the state liquor chief that law costs Idaho $400,000 in sales each time. Similar laws exist in eight other states, relics of the days when saloons served as polling places. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Delaware, Kentucky and South Carolina also have legislation in the system to lift Election Day sales bans.
  

• Beer Geeks in Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia are lobbying to overturn laws that ban sales of beer that exceeds 6% alcohol. WTF!? Stuart Carter of the Alabama lobbying group Free the Hops says Belgian ales and craft beers (which are far above that ABV range) appeal to tourists and aficionados, not "kids" (those at or just over the age of 21) and frat boys who binge drink. So why make everyone suffer?

But William Perkins of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board has never met a beer he liked. He supports state restrictions. "The intellectual argument ignores the ill effects of alcohol," he says. "Piling up more beers, no matter how tasty or expensive or exclusive, doesn't make sense."

No Mr. Perkins... you don't make sense.

If you want to lend support to our southern Beer Geek brethren, check out Free the Hops as well as the Beer Activists website. Know the Issues!