Daily Home, Katherine Poythress
06-03-2009
Restaurant and package store owners in Talladega County said the state's new legislation allowing higher alcohol contents in beer will likely improve their business.
We're on the bandwagon as far as the Free the Hops movement goes, said Buttermilk Hill restaurant owner Kara McClendon Bacchi. This is definitely a step in the right direction to get Alabama out of the Dark Ages.
Buttermilk Hill, in Sylacauga, has already been selling microbrews, Bacchi said, but the process of acquiring them and conforming to Alabama state law was difficult. Until May 22, when Gov. Bob Riley signed the Gourmet Beer Bill into law, Alabama law prohibited the sale of beers exceeding six percent alcohol by volume (ABV). The new law, energetically lobbied for by Free the Hops, a specialty beer advocacy group, allows the sale of beers with ABVs of up to 13.9 percent. This means vendors can now tap into a diverse pool of specialty beers to provide a wider range of products to their customers than they have been able to in the past.
It will be good for business, said Bob Ahmed, manager of CC's Tobacco and Package Store in Talladega. It will improve the business a lot, definitely.
He said Tuesday morning a lot of customers had already asked him about the availability of any new specialty beers.
We're excited, Bacchi said. I don't know how many more beers we'll be able to provide, though, because that's been off the radar until now.
She said the number of specialty beer labels available is overwhelming. Which beers she carries will depend largely on what her suppliers carry, and how well the specialty beer companies advertise their products in the newly opened market.
It would take a lot of research to figure out what needs to be offered, Bacchi explained. She relies largely on her customers for guidance about what liquors and beers to have ready to pour.
The consumers, though, are as much at a disadvantage as we are when it comes to determining what they like and what they want, she said. They don't know what they want, unless they have lived somewhere else before, where these specialty beers were available. The marketing will really determine what they want.
Bacchi has a number of ideas for how to begin introducing her customers to some of the new brews as they become available, she said. Among these include beer dinners, instead of the traditional wine dinners, in which the beer would play a central role in the dining experience. Other ideas include beer tastings and featuring a beer of the month.
Some alcohol vendors will conduct their business as usual, unaffected by the Gourmet Beer Bill's passage.
I don't think that will be a benefit to me at all, said a lounge owner in Talladega.
That does not curb the enthusiasm of consumers eager to try the new offerings, and store owners just as eager to supply them.
If anybody is going to take advantage of it, I think the package stores should, said Lee Goodwin of Sylacauga. Because I'm not going to want to pay restaurant or bar prices, but I just want to try new beers sometimes.
Ahmed said his suppliers have not yet obtained any high-ABV beers, but he expects within the next month to be able to meet consumer demand for the specialty brews. Although Jefferson County suppliers gambled on the legislation by purchasing specialty beers in advance of its passage, Ahmed said Talladega County will not be far behind now that the hops have been freed.
We'll be able to sell pretty much anything now, Bacchi said.
With the exception of beers in containers larger than 16 ounces. That is the next battle for Free the Hops.
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