Hi again beer fans, and happy Friday! Stop in and share a cold one.
The alcoholic beverage industry, here as in most countries, is VERY heavily regulated by the government. Not always in ways that benefit either producers or consumers.
Brewers appear to have been successful in pushing back against an FDA proposal to regulate the use of spent grain as cattle feed. Spent grain is an annoying byproduct even for homebrewers, who love the option of giving it away if someone in the area will take it for livestock. For professionals who generate it by the ton, this would probably have sent much of that to landfill instead.
Here in California, the Alcoholic Beverage Commission has jumped on a poorly-worded law that went into effect last year to effectively outlaw home brewing festivals and competitions. I wish I didn't have to credit a Republican for trying to fix this; FNBB readers in CA please consider faxing members of the Governmental Organization Committee and asking them to support AB 2609. The narrow interpretation by the ABC of the previous law is really slamming homebrewers.
In the politics of whiskey not beer, you may have read about recent debate in the Tennessee legislature to regulate what can be called "Tennessee Whiskey". The proclaimed intention was to specify standards leading to a higher-quality brand, as with the "Bourbon" label. It's only coincidental that the standards happen to match precisely the process used by Tennessee's most prominent distiller, Jack Daniel's.
Some feel the original measure serves only to stifle creativity in a burgeoning market of craft distilleries.
"If I wanted my whiskey to taste like Jack Daniel's, I'd make it like Jack Daniel's," said Phil Prichard, owner and master distiller of Prichard's Distillery in Kelso, Tenn.
If I don't say much in the comments I must still be at the homebrew club meeting. What are you drinking? Is anyone brewing?