Posted on 09/22/2012 9:41:12 AM PDT by Altariel
Do you need any proof that Alabama legislature is a backwards thinking? Read on.
My good friend Kraig Torres founded Hop City a few years ago in Atlanta, Georgia. The store sells 1,800+ beers, wine, and homebrewing supplies. Not to mention a 60+ growler station. Hop City is ranked among the best beer stores on planet earth on RateBeer.com Building upon his great success, Kraig decided to open a second location in Birmingham, Alabama. Recent law changes make Birmingham a great place for a second Hop City.
Kraig has received all the necessary permits to open except for one – the liquor license from the Alabama Beverage Commission. Kraig applied for this license, and with it, provided a floor plan. In the floor plan, he included an area for home brewing supplies. Home brewing is illegal in Alabama, but selling the ingredients is not. Kraig and his lawyer have done extensive diligence on the matter.
Yesterday (Thursday), ARMED ABC agents raided Hop City Birmingham, and confiscated books on home brewing, grain, wort chillers, and more. The agents threatened to arrest his store manager because he harbored materials used to make beer. The ABC Agents loaded up a van with $7,000 of Kraig’s inventory, stating they would be back the next day for the rest. Every single grain, hop, and carboy has to be out of the Hop City Birmingham location before a license will be granted.
Kraig tells me that his opening will now be delayed, until his license can be granted. ”I’m being held hostage by the ABC board.”
Sound off. What are your thoughts on armed men confiscating books on brewing? Bagging hops and grain like it’s cocaine?
UPDATE 9/22/12. 9 AM: The agents were armed. Whether the guns were drawn, or pointed at employees is up for contention.
Ed. Note: Pic above is one BSJ took at the Atlanta Hop City location.
“That the rest of America sees the South North as full of idiots, Bible-thumping killjoysLeftist Nanny Staters, and hayseedsProgressive know-it-alls.”
/johnny
Did they confiscate any incondescent lightbulbs?
Evidence of intent to use lawful materials for illegal purposes.
NJ and Oregon are the only two states where it's forbidden to pump your own gas.
This man will obviously win in court, but the agents will cost him and ruin his day. It was for that reason, when Clinton was elected and started shooting off his mouth about guns, I got a permit to carry so no IQ challenged police officer could ruin my day while I was driving to the gun club or returning home with a box of ammunition on the seat of my car. All it takes is one slow individual to make a mess of something perfectly legal.
It's the government that looks like idiots and killjoys here. Tyrannical killjoys.
Hopefully a smackdown will ensue. Maybe some day government will focus on actual criminals...
If you have ever split wood you know how the wood shifts if you walk on it or sit on it. If you have a member dangling down between the split wood it would get dicy very quickly. It does look like this guy is screaming, and I for one, recommend we all understand and appeciate the preDicament he finds himself in.
Mississippi does allow making wine at home but not beer. I guess I was breaking the law for over two years before I moved to Texas.
But ... But Sheriff its not beer it is a sparkling hops wine with other additives used for flavor.
Union members with pens sending union members with guns to protect union members at Budweiser who send union contributions to the original union members with pens, and promise to vote them in for another four years.
Hitler could have conquered the planet if he’d concentrated less on tanks and rockets, and instead mastered the Big Union Circle Jerk...half the people on the planet would have gladly surrendered their inalienable rights for guaranteed union benefits, and that half would have happily oppressed or imprisoned the remainder that were bitterly clinging to their constitutional rights. “You’re going to pay me what a first year intern MD makes, pension me in 15 years, AND let me double-dip? And the wage slaves and ‘enemies of the state’ get to pay for it all? Here, brother...let me help you unload that Zyklon B!” /s
You could find this protectionism in every town in the country, if people open their eyes and look beneath the thin veneer of legislated licensing/product control/distribution control/interstate trade agreements/crop controls/controlled substances/limits on power plants, manufacturing, refineries.
Why do you think the United States can no longer compete? The “greedy American too lazy to work” lie, is a brainwash. The incestuous match made in hell between unions and government profits from the worker bee and the EBT bum both, and works both ends against the middle, and they are the self appointed grinning fat cat overseers watching over the whole plantation to make sure that all us po’ slaves get along, an’ don’ get no uppity ideas about bein’ self reliant or earning our own bread widdout their “help”!
BTW...if you don’t believe that we are in the Gulag already...if you don’t think that the “fix” isn’t already in...if I’m a big conspiracy nut job, then answer me this:
Why is it that not one single member of the Republican Congress has yet used the words, “prison terms”, or even one word, “treason”. Have the goons confiscated all the Webster’s dictionaries in DC, as well?
I sures hope the new white overseer gets us a little mo’ cornmeal and anutha chunk of po’k in the stewpot, I surely does. Of course we should vote for the bishop...as if we ever had any other real choice. Anyone who gave us a real shot at draining the swamp, was politically assassinated early on. We think we have a choice between left and right, but the government union control stays dead center. I’m voting for my belly, because my heart ain’t in it.
You don’t need to chain slaves if you fool them into thinking they’re free.
Go ahead, flame me, I deserve it...the rant ghost took me over...LOL
Pretty good rant, actually.
Doesn’t Alabama have State owned liquor stores? Easy way to prevent competition.
As opposed to bastions of liberty like New York City, where the citizens can’t be trusted to make their own dietary decisions, or Chicago, where the gun laws ensure that only criminals are armed? Pull your head out of your azz.
Well here in the evil state of California we pump our own gas and brew our own beer. And large sodas are only $1 at some fast food places. There is one place near me that has 1 gal containers for cokes. And a price for 5 gallons soda pop. There are a few Gun, bait , beer and knife stores left.
Well for now.
“NJ and Oregon are the only two states where it’s forbidden to pump your own gas.”
I thought NJ was the only one, when did OR join it ?
Be-zarrr! I am more surprised that two southern states would ban it than New York allowing it! And NY allowing it floors me.
My husband is getting ready to start a batch today after taking a couple of years off. He does some really fine brews, and learned to make excellent wines as well.
The smell though! Gaaah! It’s too much in a small house.
He'll never see that inventory again.
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