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Tex Brewer
Advanced Member
Username: Texbrewer
Post Number: 696
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 216.203.59.252
| | Posted on Friday, November 04, 2011 - 07:48 pm: | 
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http://jesterkingbrewery.com/jester-king-craft-brewery-sues-texas-alcoholic-beve rage-commission-over-beer-and-consumer-freedom It's about time someone called B.S on the Texas ABC code. Jester King is a new Austin brewery making some innovative farmhouse style ales using native yeast they have cultured from the Texas Hill County.
Here's the short version:
TEXAS BREWERY TAKES ON STATE ALCOHOL COMMISSION Jester King Craft Brewer, Zax Restaurant & Bar, and alcohol distributor Authentic Beverages are suing the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in the U.S. Western District Court, in a federal lawsuit highlighting multiple failures of the current alcohol marketing laws. On Oct. 18, their attorneys requested a summary judgment from U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, arguing that the state's laws are a contradictory and illogical mess. For example, a store can advertise what is on its shelves, but neither the brewery nor the distributor can tell potential customers where to buy their product – even if it is the same beer. In the suit, the firms argue that "the gag on breweries and distributors does not directly advance any substantial government interest," and ask that the state be enjoined from enforcing those rules. The parties anticipate a hearing sometime this month. Jester King also maintains that breweries, like wineries, should be able to sell their products directly to the public. Right now in Texas, distributing breweries cannot sell their own beer at a brewery. Brewpubs are faced with an equal and opposite restriction. They can sell beer on-site, but cannot sell beer through a retailer or distributor. |
Bill Pierce
Moderator
Username: Billpierce
Post Number: 13345
Registered: 01-2002
Posted From: 24.150.49.181
| | Posted on Friday, November 04, 2011 - 10:09 pm: |
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The Twenty-First Amendment is the classic example of the law of unintended consequences. It ended the misguided experiment with Prohibition, but left a hodgepodge of state and local restrictions that confuses absolutely everyone and benefits no one but those seeking to exploit the confusion.
My 79-year-old Romanian mother in law is convinced the US is an insane place based solely on the alcohol laws. She thinks Canadians have only slightly more common sense. "Did alcohol poison all of you over here?" she asks in translation. |
John McElver
Member
Username: Johnmc
Post Number: 121
Registered: 04-2010
Posted From: 144.29.1.19
| | Posted on Monday, November 07, 2011 - 05:23 pm: |
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Hey Bill, I'd have to say to your mother that a severe, prohibition-caused lack of alcohol led to the various state liquor laws, rather than per-se poisoning.  |
Bill Pierce
Moderator
Username: Billpierce
Post Number: 13350
Registered: 01-2002
Posted From: 24.150.49.181
| | Posted on Monday, November 07, 2011 - 06:19 pm: |
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Europeans just don't understand American attitudes toward alcohol. In many cases their drinking and driving laws are stricter than ours (some countries have a zero-tolerance for blood alcohol levels while behind the wheel), but they view the multitude of regulations in North America as illogical and bordering on paranoia. They see the legal drinking age at 21 as naive and bearing little connection to reality. If the attitudes and regulations in North America were more effective, why is the incidence of alcohol abuse (roughly one in twelve adults) just about the same as in Europe? Binge drinking is relatively rare among young Europeans, much less so than over here. |
Joakim Ruud
Senior Member
Username: Joques
Post Number: 1996
Registered: 10-2005
Posted From: 91.135.33.235
| | Posted on Monday, November 07, 2011 - 10:23 pm: |
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Much as I'd like to, I can't agree that binge drinking is rare over here, Bill. Great Britain and Germany have had widely publicised problems with extreme binge drinking (and attendant violence) among youth, and we Scandinavians aren't exempt either. Up here, it is viewed as healthy and normal to be abstinate during the week and binge in the weekends. Whereas drinking temperately during the week and seldom/never bingeing is seen as a sign of alcoholism. It is a sad state of affairs. |
Vance Barnes
Senior Member
Username: Vancebarnes
Post Number: 4230
Registered: 03-2003
Posted From: 76.122.104.54
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - 12:23 am: |
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I noticed on a Boulevard Smokestack series bottle last night, "malt liquor in Texas". It's a Belgian dubbel everywhere else!
 |
Dan Listermann
Senior Member
Username: Listermann
Post Number: 7863
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 72.49.60.83
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - 03:47 am: |
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We teach our children to drive before they learn to drink.
I was lucky. I came of age when 18 was still the age you could buy beer,
and I went to a college that did not allow their students to have cars in town. I did my training on foot. |
Bill Pierce
Moderator
Username: Billpierce
Post Number: 13351
Registered: 01-2002
Posted From: 24.150.49.181
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - 04:16 am: |
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I suppose to Texas legislators the only beer over 5 percent ABV must be something you drink from a 40 oz. bottle in brown paper bag.  |
Bill Pierce
Moderator
Username: Billpierce
Post Number: 13352
Registered: 01-2002
Posted From: 24.150.49.181
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - 04:26 am: |
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Joakim, perhaps it was atypical, but the only serious binge drinking I saw in Europe was by German soccer fans, and some of them were well beyond their youth (late 40s). I was at music festivals in the Netherlands and the UK, and overall I thought the crowds were better behaved and more sober than those here in North America.
I did see alcoholics on the streets of Finland, and Iceland, of all places, where I was told beer/wine/liquor was so expensive it meant they had to be relatively wealthy. |
Paul Edwards
Senior Member
Username: Pedwards
Post Number: 2175
Registered: 03-2003
Posted From: 76.252.33.85
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - 02:29 pm: |
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I remember when we visited England in 1990, a tour guide at the Bass Brewery (a retired Bass employee) told us that lager beer was root of the drunkedness, and that "civilized people drank real ale".
He called the rioters at soccer games "lager louts"
BTW, today's election day. Vote Early, Vote Often. |
Vance Barnes
Senior Member
Username: Vancebarnes
Post Number: 4234
Registered: 03-2003
Posted From: 76.122.104.54
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2011 - 12:30 am: |
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I misspoke on the Boulevard bottle. It said "flavored ale in Texas". What is it everywhere else? |
John McElver
Member
Username: Johnmc
Post Number: 122
Registered: 04-2010
Posted From: 144.29.1.19
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2011 - 10:37 pm: |
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Wow, lager causes more drunkenness than ale, that's a new one to me. Here, I thought the same amount of ethanol caused the same amount of drunkenness.
We had the same concern voiced here in NC, back when we "Popped the Cap," that Bill mentions about Texas, that 40 oz beers are somehow bad and that folks who have access to higher alcohol beers will somehow start being more stumbling drunk than they would be from whiskey or wine. Jeez  |
Brews and Views Archive 2011 
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