Maryland Senate puts the screws to Maryland homebrewers AND winemakers

Hot off the presses this morning, here is some legislation aimed at requiring those who teach homebrewing in Maryland to acquire a $250 license, in addition to some other fees:

1. $50 for a solicitor's permit, an individual storage permit, a nonresident winery permit, or a commercial nonbeverage permit;
2. $75 for a public storage permit, a public transportation permit, or an import and export permit;
3. $100 for a public storage and transportation permit, a nonresident dealer permit, or a bulk transfer permit;
4. $400 for a family beer and wine facility permit;
5. $10 for a direct wine seller?s permit; AND
6. $250 FOR A HOME BREWING INSTRUCTOR'S PERMIT."

With the introduction of Governor O'Malley (aka Martin the Teflon Leprechaun), it seems Maryland residents have had a new tax to pay every week.

Want to let 'em know your opinion? Email the sponsors:

TODD L. SCHULER, Democrat, District 8, Baltimore County
JOSEPH C. BOTELER III, Republican, District 8, Baltimore County
ERIC M. BROMWELL, Democrat, District 8, Baltimore County

I may not be a Maryland resident anymore, but my family, friends, and homebrewing brethren are. Enough is enough!

Another brewer adjusts to keep beer on tap

Being a fan of DuClaw's fine creations (and for having a home base in my native Harford County, MD), my email patiently awaits their newest releases. This email today is another example of the hop shortage and what it means to craft brewers:

Loyal DuClaw Patrons,

As you have probably already noticed, our beer prices increased in January. A combination of low grain supplies and a worldwide hop shortage (that has left many varieties of hops completely unavailable) has lead to an industry wide price increase for beer. When grain prices double and hop prices triple, beer prices must follow.

The hops shortage has had other sobering effects (no pun intended) on the brewing industry as a whole and DuClaw specifically. The hops used in the recipe for Venom are simply no longer available. Rather than offer you a pint of something called Venom, that looks similar but tastes nothing like your favorite APA, we’ve decided to pull it from the lineup until the hops are once again available. This wasn’t an easy decision. In fact, we’re angry about it. Angry enough to raise some hell…

COMING SOON: HELLRAZER, our new American-style India Pale Ale. HELLRAZER boasts a light amber color, citrus aroma, smooth hoppy finish, and devilish 6.2% abv. This new IPA will more than fill the void for you hop heads out there during Venom’s absence, but we promise, Venom will return with the hops.

So, to recap: prices are going up, Venom is going away, and we’re going to an old axiom: when life hands you lemons, RAISE HELL!

Cheers!

Their Venom Pale Ale uses Cascade and Columbus hops, which by some estimates are completely unavailable (at least to homebrewers; presumably craft brewers as well).

It's going to be a long year. Fortunately there are a few carrying the torch for us.

Boston Beer Hop Sharing

Jim Koch never fails to impress and demonstrate his support for the homebrew and craft beer segment, as shown in this email:

From: Jim Koch/Hop Sharing [mailto:Hop.Sharing@bostonbeer.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:22 AM
Subject: Boston Beer Hop Sharing

For a couple of months now, we've all been facing the unprecedented hops shortage and it's affected all craft brewers in various ways. The impact is even worse on the small craft brewers--openings delayed, recipes changed, astronomical hops prices being paid and brewers who couldn't make beer.

So we looked at our own hops supplies at Boston Beer and decided we could share some of our hops with other craft brewers who are struggling to get hops this year. We're offering 20,000 pounds at our cost to brewers who need them. Specifically, we are able to spare 10,000 pounds of East Kent Goldings from Tony Redsell, a top English grower featured by Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson's Beer Companion (page 75 has a picture) and 10,000 pounds of the German Noble hop Tettnang Tettnanger from small farms in the Tettnang region in Germany. These are both type 90 pellets from the 2007 crop and are the exact same hops we brew our own beers with. We're not looking to make money on this so we're selling them at our cost of $5.72 a pound plus $.75 a pound to cover shipping and handling for the Goldings and $5.42 per pound plus $.75 a pound to cover shipping and handling for the Tetts. They're packed in 22# foil bags, boxed four bags to a box in 88 lb. boxes and will be shipped from cold storage.

The purpose of doing this is to get some hops to the brewers who really need them. So if you don't really need them, please don't order them. And don't order them just because we're making them available at a price way below market. Order them because you need these hops to make your beer. We're not asking questions, so let your conscience be your guide.

A few mechanics--until we know how much need there is, we've put a maximum out there of 6 boxes per brewer, which is 528 pounds. You can order less in 88 pound increments. You pay shipping. If we get more orders than the 20,000 pounds, we'll have a lottery. We will be putting the basic information to order, some faqs and the actual offer on our website www.samueladams.com in the next day or so, probably no later than Tuesday. Look for "Hop-Sharing Program" on the front page of the site.

We hope this will make brewing a little easier for those hardest hit by the hop shortage.

Jim Koch, Boston Beer Company

Now that's what you call class!

So go buy some Sam Adams and support those that mutually support the craft brewing industry.

Cheers!!

Boycott Anheuser-Busch

For the third legislative session in a row, thirsty residents in Alabama have been trying to do away with the state's 6% alcohol limit, which excludes about 1/3 of the world's beer.

Barleywine? Uh uh.

Double IPA? No way.

Chimay? Fuggetaboutit.

It's not all that much of a suprise when old laws linger, but to find a major brewer like Anheuser-Busch in the background, playing their chips and using their muscle to keep the law in place to protect their market share is reprehensible. Anheuser-Busch certainly doesn't care about consumer choice or supporting the industry.

Anheuser-Busch likes to tout their supposed passive coexistence, but really they're no better than they were in the mid-'90s when their "100%-share-of-mind" campaign sought to clear liquor store shelves of craft beer:

The action goes on to quote an address by August Busch III at the 1995 NBWA convention, in which he stressed the need to focus on flagship brands, and continues: "In March 1996, August Busch III announced that he decided that A-B distributors should not distribute craft beers any longer, and that A-B distributors should give '100% share-of-mind' to the Budweiser family of products. In fact, A-B launched a 'share of mind' campaign headed by a 'share of mind' team... The purpose of this nationwide effort was to eliminate as many non-exclusive distributors as possible, and thereby deprive the plaintiff and the members of the class a material part, if not all, of their distribution network.

What can you do?

Help out by calling/emailing A-B's corporate offices to express your opinion about Birmingham Budweiser's efforts to thwart consumer choice in Alabama.
1-800-DRINK-BUD
https://contactus.anheuser-busch.com/contactus/email.asp

You can also call and email Birmingham Budweiser (keep trying if it's busy!)
205-945-4893
customerservice@bhambud.com.

Lastly, support the thirsty beer lovers in Alabama. Check out Free The Hops.org.

Spread the word!