Oklahoma House Bill 2348, which would legalize homebrewing in the state of Oklahoma, is scheduled to be heard before the Senate Business and Labor Committee on Monday, March 29. We are encouraging all Oklahoma residents who support homebrew legalization to contact the members of the committee and request that they send it on to the full Senate for a vote. See the Action Alert sent to Oklahoma members of the American Homebrewers Association, Brewers Association, and Support Your Local Brewery network.
HB 2348 has already passed the House. If it passes the Senate Business and Labor Committee, we will be encouraging Oklahoma residents to contact their Senators to encourage them to pass the bill when it comes up for a Senate vote.
In Alabama, Senate Bill 153 has passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote in the House Tourism and Travel Committee. We hope it will clear the committee, so it can move on to a House vote.
Unfortunately, the Mississippi homebrew bills that were filed in both the House and Senate before the start of this year’s session were killed before they could be heard at the committee level. However, Mississippi’s homebrewers, along with Raise Your Pints, are already planning for next year’s legislative session and will be working on educating legislators on why they should support homebrew legalization in Mississippi.
I will be at the Abita Brewing Co in Abita Springs, LA on Saturday March 27th for an AHA Rally. A homebrew legalization bill has been filed for the up-coming legislative session, which starts on Monday March 29th. Currently homebrewing is tenuously legal in Louisiana based on a 1944 Louisiana Supreme Court decision in a case involving four bottles of homebrew. House Bill 503 seeks to make homebrewing statutorily legal, and specifically allows for serving homebrew at local and national events, as well as at the houses of friends and family or homebrew club meetings. Louisiana residents should look for an Action Alert from the AHA/BA shortly.
For those of you who don’t happen to live in Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana, but are wondering what you can do to help the legalization effort. Those of you who are AHA members are already helping, as your membership dues help support the AHA’s homebrew legalization activities. In addition, if you have any friends or relatives in states where homebrew legalization campaigns are taking place, encourage them to get involved. I send our Action Alerts via the @AHADirector twitter account, as well as posting links to the Alerts on the AHA Facebook page. Links are also posted to the AHA Forum.
Cheers!
Gary Glass
AHA Director
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