Positive Liberty

As noted about four years ago in this space, it’s illegal to brew your own beer in Alabama and Utah (it’s legal nearly everywhere else). Back then I kinda scoffed at the prohibition, noting that home brewing is nearly impossible for the cops to detect. But it turns out people are actually getting busted for it:

Today when I got home from work, there was a handwritten note stuck to my mailbox from an actual Alabama ABC Agent. Let me back up a bit for those who do not know me. My name is Scott Oberman. Some of you may have seen my pic and read the article in the LA Times or other media. I agreed to allow an LA Times reporter into my home to attend our homebrew club meeting. This was at the request (not directly) of FTH [Free The Hops, an Alabama pro-brewing group] folks in hopes that we had something going on while she was in town. I gladly agreed to this thinking it would be great publicity for FTH and the homebrewing legalization efforts. I am a member of the Rocket City Brewers in the HSV area. I have been homebrewing for 11 years. I am a hardcore homebrewer. The note said:

“To the Oberman’s,
Please call me at

***-***-**** (these are the actual #’s in case you’d like to verify)
***-***-****

Sorry I don’t have a card to leave you.

Agent **** ***** (not positive of last name spelling)
Alabama ABC Board
************************
Huntsville, AL 35806″

At first I figured one of my brewing buds sure went a long way just to mess with me. I called the number just in case. It was legit. I was told by the agent that the Mongomery office instructed him to pay me a visit and ensure that I was fully aware of the AL code concerning making beer in the home. He asked if he could come over to talk to me. I asked if there was a website that I could download from and save him a trip. He said that he had to have me sign for the information to verify I received it. I asked if I could just come to his office and meet him and sign for it there and he agreed. I will try to get a better feel for the direction this is leading, but I am not feeling good about it. My situation is extra shaky because I am divorced and have joint custody of my 11 year old daughter. I also have a job with the DoD that requires a security clearance. I stand to lose nearly everything if the State decides to make an example of me. You may think I was a dumbass for allowing my name, etc to be published in the article. I did not know the article was going to have full names printed nor did I know the tone it would be presented in. I did not get to read it before it was printed. I should have asked. At this point, I am very close to the decision to completely give up the best hobby in the world until such time that it is no longer illegal here in AL. This is a decision that I have not taken lightly, but my family has to come first. This is the real thingThis is a sad day for homebrewing. I urge you all to do whatever you can to get this thru the 2008 legislation. Your voices CAN be heard and CAN make a difference.

“Sorry I don’t have a card to leave you.” Now that’s classy.

Keep in mind that home brewing is legal in almost all other jurisdictions, provided that you neither sell nor distill your product. Making your own beer and wine has been legal at the federal level since 1978, and the few remaining anti-brewing laws are mostly unenforceable, since one can’t practically criminalize common plants like barley, hops, and cann… oh wait, wrong blog post.

Okay, I’ll stop joking now. This is serious:

Seventy-five years after Prohibition, beer aficionados in Alabama are fighting for the right to brew and chug as they please. That’s raised the ire of Southern Baptists, who frown on alcohol in any form. As they jockey for advantage in the Legislature, one side quotes Scripture. The other cites BeerAdvocate.com. One talks morality. The other, malt.

Though this may seem like an only-in-the-Bible-Belt brawl, booze-related debates have flared recently in a number of states.

In Virginia, for instance, sangria was the talk of the statehouse after a Spanish restaurant was cited for illegally mixing brandy with wine, in violation of a 1930s-era statute. Idaho lawmakers may soon amend the criminal code to permit vodka sales on election days. And in Colorado, lawmakers have considered rescinding a law that bans supermarkets (but not liquor stores) from selling wine with more than 3.2% alcohol content.

Here in Alabama, home-brewing beer has long been a Class A misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. It’s another Class A misdemeanor to sell or distribute any beer with more than 6% alcohol content. That puts off-limits 85 of the 100 top-rated beers in the world, as ranked by BeerAdvocate.com. “They think everyone down here is a bunch of damn rednecks and all we drink is Budweiser,” grumbles Tipton, 48.

Let’s run down some objections:

–The Bible says you shouldn’t drink alcohol.

I’d like to see chapter and verse on that one, and then I’d like to know what gives with that wedding at Cana. Then I’d like to know why teetotaling is a matter of civil law rather than private religious morality. And finally, I know the Bible says you shouldn’t swear, and yet our laws not only allow swearing but in fact encourage it, and the religious right never says a peep about that. Anyone wanting to go this route sure has a lot of explaining to do.

–It’s not as good as commercial beers anyway.

First, I invite you to try some of mine. I’ll set up a blind taste test between any of my beers and a can of Natural Light. Just to make it objective, I’ll invite some professional beer judges (I know a few).

And second — wait just a minute here. Since when is the state a guardian of good taste?

–It could be dangerous to your health.

Yes, I’ll admit that home brewers sometimes make beers that don’t taste too good, though this is surprisingly rare. Of the ten best beers I’ve ever had, I’d guess fully half of them were homebrews. But it’s completely impossible to make a toxic homebrew unless you use leaded equipment or toxic ingredients; both are easily avoided just by using food-grade equipment and sticking to the traditional recipes, and by adding only things that you’d ordinarily be eating anyway. (Bacteria in meat can kill you, but in beer it just makes the brew taste yucky.) The right approach here is not to prohibit the activity, but simply to use common sense while doing it. Banning homebrew for fear of poisoning would be like banning cycling for fear of accidents.

Irony bonus: As I noted in my earlier post, the jurisdiction most known for lead poisoning by way of alcohol is — you guessed it — Alabama. Prohibition, and not alcohol, is generally to blame for the rare stories you hear about toxic brews.

–You don’t really need to brew at home.

Well, yeah. But you don’t really need to read that book. You don’t really need to watch that film. You don’t really need to write poetry, or to take photographs, to perform that play, or even to text your friends on a cell phone. Some cigars are ok, and some you don’t really need. And, whatever you may think, you don’t actually need to smoke in public, even if you and every other person around you is willing.

The number of activities that could be prohibited is infinite. The burden of proof still rests on whoever wants to prohibit any particular one of them, and the standard must be set very high if we are to live as free people at all.

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