Alabama

Updated: 5/2013

Status: Permitted

Statute

Alabama state statue § 28-4-3 [statute number will be added once the code is updated with the bill passed in May 2013] permits the home production of beer, mead and cider for personal use in wet counties and municipalities, subject to limitations on the amount produced and possessed.

Discussion

The Alabama homebrew statute permits the home production of beer, mead and cider in wet counties an municipalities. Convicted felons are not permitted to make beer, mead or cider for personal use. The statute limits production to 15 gallons per calendar quarter and possession at any time to 15 gallons. The statute allows for transport of homemade beer, mead and cider in amounts of no more than 10 gallons and only for organized events of homebrew competitions and judgings licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board as a special events retail license. Such homebrew competitions and judgings cannot be held on the premises of entities otherwise licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

Special Provisions

N/A

State Alcohol Beverage Control Agency

Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

• P.O. Box 1151
• Montgomery, AL 36101
• Phone: 334.271.3840
• Fax: 334.244.1815

Applicable Statutory Material

Section 1. (a) Notwithstanding any provisions to the contrary, a person who has not been convicted of a felony in Alabama or any other state or federal jurisdiction, and who is not prohibited by Section 28-1-5, Code of Alabama 1975, from purchasing, consuming, possessing, or transporting alcoholic beverages due to age may produce at his or her legal residence beer, mead, cider, and table wine, as those terms are defined in Section 28-3-1, Code of Alabama 1975, for personal use, in the amounts specified in this act, without payment of taxes or fees and without obtaining a license. The aggregate amount of the beer, mead, cider, and table wine permitted to be produced under this act, with respect to any legal residence, shall not exceed 15 gallons for each quarter of a calendar year. Further, there shall not be in any legal residence at any one time more than an aggregate amount of 15 gallons of beer, mead, cider, and table wine which has been produced under the authority of this act.

(b) Beer, mead, cider, or table wine produced under this act may not be sold or offered for sale.

(c) Beer, mead, cider, or table wine produced under this act may not be removed from the legal residence where it was produced, except in quantities no larger than 10 gallons, aggregate, for any one event, and to be transported for personal use at organized events of homebrew competitions and judgings licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board as a special events retail license under Section 28-3A-20, Code of Alabama 1975, provided that the license will not allow the purchase or sale of any alcoholic beverages when that license is used for this purpose. Organized events involving beer, mead, cider, or table wine produced for personal use may not be held on the premises of entities otherwise licensed under Title 28, Code of Alabama 1975.

(d) Nothing in this act permits the production of distilled liquors, for personal use or otherwise, or the use of distilled liquors or products in the production of beer, mead, cider, or table wine provided in this section.

(e) It shall be unlawful for any person less than 21 years of age to attempt to purchase, consume, possess, or transport beer, mead, cider, or table wine produced for personal use.

(f) It shall be unlawful for any person less than 21 years of age to attempt to purchase, possess, or transport any apparatus or equipment used to produce beer, mead, cider, or table wine. It shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, corporation, or other legal entity to sell, furnish, give away, or provide to any person less than 21 years of age any apparatus or equipment used to produce beer, mead, cider, or table wine.

(g) Nothing in this section permits the production of beer, mead, cider, or table wine in a dry municipality, as defined in Chapter 3 of Title 28, Code of Alabama 1975. Further, with the exception of wet municipalities, as defined in Chapter 3 of Title 28, Code of Alabama 1975, nothing in this section permits the production of beer, mead, cider, or table wine in a dry county as defined in Chapter 3 of Title 28, Code of Alabama 1975.

(h) The definitions contained in Section 28-3-1 of the Code of Alabama 1975, shall apply to this act.

(i) Any violation of this section shall be a Class B misdemeanor.

§ 28-3-1 Definitions

(3) BEER, or MALT OR BREWED BEVERAGES. Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, any beer, lager beer, ale, porter, malt or brewed beverage, or similar fermented malt liquor containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume and not in excess of thirteen and nine-tenths percent by volume, by whatever name the same may be called.

(6) CIDER. A fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice and containing not more than 8.5 percent alcohol by volume.

(19) MEAD. An alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water with grain mash and containing not more than 18 percent alcohol by volume.

(33) WINE. All beverages made from the fermentation of fruits, berries, or grapes, with or without added spirits, and produced in accordance with the laws and regulations of the United States, containing not more than 24 percent alcohol by volume, and shall include all sparkling wines, carbonated wines, special natural wines, rectified wines, vermouths, vinous beverages, vinous liquors, and like products, including restored or unrestored pure condensed juice.

(34) TABLE WINE. Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, any wine containing not more than 24 percent alcohol by volume. Table wine does not include any wine containing more than sixteen and one-half percent alcohol by volume that is made with herbs or flavors, except vermouth, or is an imitation or other than standard wine. Table wine is not liquor, spirituous, or vinous.

Note: The information presented here is to the best of our knowledge and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice specific to the laws of your state.