Thanks to a grass roots efforts from savvy beer lovers, a lot of hard work, and a sympathetic Governor, Mississippi joined 48 other states in legalizing homebrewing with the stroke of the Governor’s pen on March 19.  Alabama remains the lone holdout.

In Montana we’ve long taken homebrewing for granted.  It’s one of the few areas of alcohol regulation that has remained uncomplicated. Montana simply defaults to the federal rules: 100 gallons per year for households with one adult, 200 gallons per year for households with two or more adults.  That’s the equivalent of brewing (and drinking) one five gallon batch (the most common size) every nine days for a two+ adult household.  That works.

Mississippi’s new law adopts the same standards, but adds in a clarification to legalize transporting homebrew to a “bona fide exhibition, contest or competition where homemade beer is being tasted and judged.”  That’s been a fuzzy area for many states (along with serving homebrew for competitions and other non-commercial purposes.)

The effort to legalize homebrewing was led by Raise Your Pints, a grassroots, non-profit organization whose mission is to help bring the highest quality beers in the world to Mississippi. It falls on the heels of RYP’s successful effort in 2012 to get the Mississippi Legislature to raise the permissible alcohol level in beer.

Craig Hendry, current President of Raise Your Pints, graciously agreed to answer a couple of questions for us:

Q: What made 2013 the right time to approach the legislature to legalize homebrewing? 

 

A: We’ve actually been working to legalize homebrewing for ~5 years alongside our efforts to raise the ABV limit.  It was always our #2 goal.  After last year’s success fixing ABV, we were able to focus 100% on homebrewing.

Q: What approach did you/Raise Your Pints take to draft/support the bill to legalize homebrewing? 

 

A: Our drafted bills changed in wording each year.  As we talked to lawmakers and lawyers we revised the bill language until we had a good bill that would cover our goals (mirror federal limits and legalize transportation) and minimize resistance as it traveled through the capital. 

Q: What was your biggest challenge to overcome? 

 

A: Education. We worked hard to educate the lawmakers and inform them of how legalizing homebrewing was safe and would benefit the state through economic development and tourism. 

Q: With your success during the last session in raising the abv, and success this session in legalizing homebrewing, what’s next? A run for Governor? 

 

We don’t have any firm legislative goals at the moment.  We’ll continue to educate and promote craft beer in Mississippi along with hosting and helping with craft beer events.  We’ll also assist the newly formed Mississippi Brewer’s Guild with their legislative agenda.

I think we can all raise a pint in toast to Craig and Raise Your Pints for their efforts in supporting positive change to craft beer regulations.