Bill that would bring bigger beer bottles to Alabama brewing in state Senate, House

Alabama beer fans have an organization called Free the Hops to thank for a lot of recent successes in bringing craft beer to Alabama. In 2009 (was it that long ago?) the beer advocacy organization helped push the Gourmet Beer Bill through the legislature—that bill raised the alcohol-by-volume (ABV) limit on beer in Alabama from six percent to 13.9 percent and helped flood the state’s beer market with exciting new high-gravity suds. In 2011, Free the Hops (FTH) managed to get the Brewery Modernization Act through the Alabama legislative process. That bill made it easier to build a brewery or a brewpub in Alabama.

(In fact, FTH has had so much success in getting bills introduced and passed in the Alabama legislature in the past five years that it makes one wonder why Jefferson County hasn’t poached the organization’s lobbyist!)

Now, FTH is taking on another challenge for the 2012 legislative session: bigger bottles.

Recent legislative successes championed by Free the Hops have allowed Birmingham's Good People brewery to serve beer at their brewery and sell high-gravity beers like Snake Handler in Alabama.

“Alabama is the only state that restricts beer bottle size to 16 ounces or less,” Free the Hops president Gabe Harris told Weld in an e-mail. Right now, those 16 ounce tallboys are the biggest beers, in terms of container size, that we can get in this state. That means that there are still many beers that Alabama brew aficionados have to bootleg from neighbor states.

“Many out of state breweries such as Stone or The Lost Abbey will not come to Alabama until this law is passed,” Harris said. “Just about every craft brewery packages at least some of their beers in 22 ounce or 750 milliliter bottles and this restriction is severely limiting the number of breweries Alabamians can choose from.”

So the new bill — which has been introduced in the House as HB264 (read it below) and in the Senate as SB294 — would simply change the container size restriction from 16 ounces to 25.4 ounces.

The synopsis for the House bill says it all: “Under existing law, all beer, except draft or keg beer, must be sold by retailers in containers not to exceed one pint or 16 ounces. This bill would allow beer to be sold in containers not to exceed 25.4 ounces.”

“While no one can predict what issues may arise during a legislative session I am confident our bill will pass,” Harris wrote. “Both of our bills have been great for the state when it comes to consumers and businesses and this bill does the same thing. We have a lot of support for this bill, more than we ever have in the past.”

Sen. Paul Sanford (R-Huntsville) sponsored the bill in the Senate, and four Mobile Republicans — Reps. Jim Barton, Jamie Ison, Chad Fincher and David Sessions — sponsored the House bill. Sanford serves on the Senate Tourism and Marketing committee, which deals with beer bills. None of the House sponsors serve on the House version of that committee, the Economic Development and Tourism committee.

Author’s note: When I asked my Facebook friends how I could possibly alliterate more in the title of this piece, I received many great suggestions. But these really stood out:

Bill Bringing Bigger Beer Bottles Brought Before ‘Bama Bicameral Body — suggested by David Faught

Big Beer in Big Bottles? Beer Battle Brewing in Backwards Bastion of Bald Brinksmanship, the Alabama Statehouse — suggested by Danner Kline (who, incidentally, founded Free the Hops)

BALABAMA BEGISLATORS BONSIDERING BEER BILL BHAT BHOULD BRING BIGGER BEER BOTTLES BO BIRMINGHAM — suggested by Peter Starr

HB264-Gourmet Bottle Bill