Alabama governor approves stronger beer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama has a new law allowing stronger beer to be sold in the state, which means previously banned specialty and imported beers can soon begin appearing in restaurants, bars and some retail stores.

Gov. Bob Riley said he signed the bill Friday to immediately raise the alcohol limit on beer from 6 percent to 13.9 percent by volume. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, won legislative approval last week.

Bob Hill, attorney for the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said new beers should start showing up this summer. Brewers will have to line up distributors and register with the ABC Board before sales can begin.

Free the Hops, a grass-roots organization of more than 1,300, had worked to increase the limit to allow specialty and gourmet beers with higher alcohol levels to be sold in the state.

"We've been working this for over four years," President Stuart Carter of Birmingham said Friday. "I'm shellshocked from hearing the news."

The Rev. Joe Godfrey, executive director of the church-funded Alabama Citizen Action Project, had fought the legislation and was disappointed by Riley's signature.

"It's further evidence our society is totally absorbed in alcohol consumption," he said.

Carter and other proponents told legislators that the higher alcohol beers won't appeal to people trying to get drunk because they are more expensive than the name brands.

Godfrey predicted it won't stay that way long.

"This opens the door for all beer companies to increase the level of alcohol in their beer and market it toward young people," he said.

Riley, a teetotaler, signed the beer bill a week after signing legislation to allow stronger table wine to be sold in the state.

Riley said he signed the beer legislation because "it really doesn't change the drinking laws." He said the new law doesn't expand where beer can be sold, but it does prohibit some convenience stores from selling the stronger beer.

Carter said that until the beer legislation became law, Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia had the nation's lowest limit on beer at 6 percent.

No one was happier to see the law signed than Dale Katechis, who owns the Oskar Blues microbrewery in Longmont, Colo., and is a member of Free the Hops.

Katechis and his wife, Christi, grew up in Florence, Ala., and attended Auburn University, where Katechis started home brewing beer as a hobby. They found success in the restaurant business in Lyons, Colo., and then opened their microbrewery in 1999. Their beers are now sold in 24 states. But none is available in Alabama because the alcohol contents range from 6.5 percent to 8.7 percent alcohol.

Katechis said Friday he plans to start lining up distribution in Alabama and going through the registration process at the ABC Board.

"Our goal is to get some beer to our home state," he said.

Katechis said he's optimistic about success in Alabama because neighboring Georgia is his second-biggest market.
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