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Apparently there is a law in the works in the state legislature that would make it much tougher on craft breweries. Seems it is being pushed by the politically powerful distributors of the cheap pilsners that have so long dominated the beer scene.
Apparently there is a law in the works in the state legislature that would make it much tougher on craft breweries. Seems it is being pushed by the politically powerful distributors of the cheap pilsners that have so long dominated the beer scene.
No doubt, WV is still getting it's feet wet in the craft beer industry. There is so much untapped (pardon the pun ) potential in this state, i would really hate to see a law go through that would prohibit creativity of the good folks in the craft beer line of business.
The bill is HB4549 - SB579. The bill is designed to change some language in WV's laws regulating beer, particularly beer distribution. One of the changes is that it will require that the various contracts between a brewer and the various distributors in the state be identical, and the contracts must be approved by the ABC Commissioner. Obviously, this is something that Anheuser Busch can impose on the distributors, but something very difficult for Morgantown Brewing or Vandalia Brewing to do.
I encourage all of you to contact your legislator and ask them if they are planning to vote for Anheuser Busch or for the citizens and small businesses of West Virginia.
Already sent the emails to my representatives. If the elected officials don't want to support WV businesses, we need to vote them out of office and support those who will support the local economy.
On a bigger scale, West Virginia's beer laws need a complete rewrite. Whenever people elsewhere find out what is in our laws, they laugh at us. In the law, beer is "non-intoxicating beer." The fact that beer MUST be sold through a distributor is out-dated. It probably made sense when WV was coming out of Prohibition and everybody was being very careful how they regulated alcohol, but we don't need that any more. It seems to me that Morgantown Brewing should be allowed to fill up a truck and take it to the Go Mart warehouse and unload it.
Considering the separation of church and state, how can we justify outlawing the sale of beer on Sunday until 1:00 PM, and outlawing the sale of liquor all day on Sundays? Can anybody come up with a reason to do that without bringing religious observances into the conversation?
Defeating the bill currently before the legislature should be a first step in revising our beer laws to make more sense.
Our alcohol laws in this country don't make sense from many points of view. Entirely too much emphasis is placed on regulation, and history has repeatedly shown prohibition simply does not work. The emphasis should be on being responsible, and enforcement attention paid to irresponsible behavior, not drinking ages and the like. In most of the rest of the world, 16 is the legal drinking age and few countries really even enforce that. Act out though, and you will draw lots of attention.
Any beverage that violates the German Purity Laws should not be permitted to be labeled "beer".
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) potential in this state, i would really hate to see a law go through that would prohibit creativity of the good folks in the craft beer line of business.
