Help Us Free The Hops

Free The Hops | Alabamians For Specialty Beer (FTH) is a grassroots, non-profit organization whose mission is to help bring the highest quality beers in the world to Alabama. These beers are commonly referred to as craft beers due to the skill and artistry required to brew them, but they are also appropriately classified as specialty or gourmet.

Wait, were you thinking the hops were now completely free? Think again. You probably already know that in pursuit of its mission, FTH passed the Gourmet Beer Bill in 2009. This bill changed the allowable alcohol by volume (ABV) in beer from 6% to 13.9%, allowing hundreds of world class beers into the state. Since then, the shelves of Alabama's bars, restaurants, and retail stores have added scores of new beers and the variety available to consumers has exploded. And last year, in 2011, we passed the Brewery Modernization Act, which removed some of the archaic restrictions preventing Alabama brweries from operating tap rooms (and running tours). The first tap room opened in September 2011, with Good People Breweing, and since then we've gained at least 2 more tap rooms in Birmingham and Huntsville with more planned!

There's still to be done.

2012 legislative session

This year we reintroduced the Gourmet Bottle Bill, which seeks to raise the maximum package size allowed for the sale of beer. Right now, you won't find any beer sold in a bottle larger than 16 ounces, but hundreds of craft beers are packaged only in 22 ounce or 750 milliliter bottles. This Bill never made it out of committee for 2011. You can follow its progress this year.

How you can help

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