Well...our time has come where we need to stand up for homebrewing. A letter/ruling from the IABD regarding the serving of homebrew outside of a home has been sent. It puts an immediate end to our activities held at el bait shop. Technically it means no more Jimmy Carter Happy Hour, no more meetings or competitions at establishments, and - quite frankly - no more serving your homebrew outside of your home. This is all new as of today. As of right now we are asking everyone to take a wait and see attitude. We have notified the AHA and are going to gather more information about this. We will communicate our findings as we know them. Bottom line - we have a call to action - It's time to stand up for our homebrewing. More to follow... The Iowa Brewers Union or IBU for short is the home brew club here in Des Moines this was posted this was posted on the facebook page tonight. They have meetings at the famous El Bait Shop as well as the Jimmy Carter happy hour where club members would show up once a week and offer samples and talk about the hobby. As of today this is no more! the Iowa liquor ****s sent a letter to the club telling them to stop no more meetings there and no more happy hour. Sad day here hopefully this is just temporary and something can be done to turn the tide!
Also, can you post a copy of the letter your club got? Maybe someone can dissect it or find a loophole. If nothing else it will inspire a couple dozen people to sign a petition for you.
Wow - Iowa must be all set with a perfect local economy, no crime, you name it to be worried about this.
If you put nice labels on your bottles would anyone know the difference between homebrew and a beer bought in a store that was consumed not in a home?
The AHA has helped other states with legislation that allows the homebrew to be consumed at tastings and competitions. Some states shut down competitions due to someone stricktly interpreting the law, so a new law has to be passed specificly allowing that.
I was at EL Bait Shop last night and JCHH was set up and ready to go, I had to leave prior to the serving beginning, so I assume this is pretty fresh off the fire? Time to picket The Branstache!
I don't live in Iowa, or belong to a Homebrew club, but this is nuts. I presume it would be OK to bring a case of commercial brews around... or a handle of vodka, whisky etc... I would say to those in Iowa to abide strictly by the letter AND spirit of the laws - any skirting or loopholing will make the Powers That Be enforce the rules that much harder and be less likely to listen to reason to change the laws. Does the law ban serving at home? Can the club hold meetings at members homes for the time being, obviously rotating locations so one person doesn't get stuck holding it all the time. Either the hosting member providing the beer for the evening or others bringing some along (don't get stopped by the cops...)
I just reached out to Gary Glass at the AHA and he's received word about this. They're looking into what's happening. Apparently, there are already legislative efforts underway to correct this.
There is House File 488 that was passed by both House and Senate from what I could find, this was done 3/20, so it was addressed before from what I can tell.
There were several requests for the letter on the Club page but it was not posted. The rumor mill thinks it is another bar/resturaunt that filed the complaint. I would like to know who that was so I don't go there and can tell others not to as well. Iowa dispite what others think is fairly liberal so I don't think this will last long. It just sucks that they choose to pick on such a small group of people that were not hurting anybody.
Whenever a bar does this, particularly if it's a brewery, I wonder how they stay in business. I would also want to know who filed the complaint, and would similarly tell my friends about it and not patronize their business anymore. You might be able to find out by FOI. Funny thing, being nice to people gets more repeat business than being a jerk. Curious, I know, but gosh darn it, it's true. Luckily Iowa doesn't have any real crime, and thus they can of course afford to spend enforcement manpower and dollars on piddly little crimes like drinking homebrew outside of your home.
Believe it or not here in Des Moines there have been six drive by shootings this week! So yeah there is some crime in one part of town. But your right this is a complete waste of time enforcement wise.
"There's trouble, trouble right there in Iowa City — trouble, with a capital "T" that rhymes with "B" and that stands for Beer." – apologies to Meredith Wilson.
Not to pick on Junior or anyone in particular, but the terms FOI and FOIA are sometimes used out of context. "The" big FOIA is a federal law, and applies only to federal government. Every state has its own law or laws covering public accessibility of State govt information. Some states call them FOIA, and some don't. But they are all different in content. I don't know about Iowa specifically, but I think it's fairly common for state laws to exclude information pertaining to criminal investigations.
I don't think this is a criminal investigation so much as the state liquor folks saying hey you home brewer stop sharing your tasty suds with others in a public place. But your right VikeMan it seems like there is no easy way to find out who pulled the fire alarm on this one.
