Craft Freedom Will Have Their Day In Court

Turns out the only way to effect change to alcohol laws where the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers have a vested interest is by lawsuit. After Tim Kent and his cronies slimily reneged on a deal made with Charlotte brewery owners to increase the cap Craft Freedom has filed a lawsuit against the state. Of course our boy Timmay says no deal was ever in place and his board told him no, but I suspect this is simply more lies from him. So we shall see if the 25,000 barrel cap passes the test when it hits the courtroom or if Tim and his gang can influence the outcome of the case. I suspect with the legal power Craft Freedom brings to the courtroom the cap will be lifted. The question is by how much.

Wicked Weed Buyout By AB

The announcement a few days ago that Wicked Weed was purchased by Anheuser-Busch has brought a dark cloud over what should have been a glorious payout for hard work and investment. Wicked Weed started brewing five years ago at the brewpub in Asheville and has expanded to have four locations and almost 200 employees. Their sour beers have gained notoriety and they had several collaborations in the works which have now been cancelled, drain poured, distanced, or remixed to create new beers. The NC Brewers Guild has revoked their voting privileges and the craft brewing community has begun to distance themselves from the brewery. Wicked Weed had a festival planned for July and tickets were to go on sale this week, but the sale has been pushed back to May 20 and thus far over 20 breweries have backed out of the festival with more to follow.

With every buyout there is backlash, but sooner or later the public forgets or the beer does an end run around the beer geeks and ends up with the general public. I’m not sure in this case if the sour portfolio developed by Wicked Weed will survive the current negativity. Joe Beer Drinker is not going to try, nor buy, a $10 bottle of funky beer. Even if they dumb it down it won’t fly off the shelves. So what will AB ultimately do? I’m not sure, but if the Wicked Weed beers don’t sell I would assume they will ask them to focus on the beers which do sell.

Readers of the blog already know I had given up on the Wicked Weed bottles as I found them all underwhelming. I was a fan of The Funkatorium in Asheville, but have always found the brew pub to be a place to far too many unwritten rules. Not going back to the brew pub will not break my heart and my wallet will thank me for skipping The Funkatorium. Will I never drink another Wicked Weed beer again? I’m sure somewhere along the way the best beer on tap will be a WW and I’ll have a glass, but until that happens I don’t plan to put any of my money into the AB machine.

House Bill 500 and Farm Breweries

Part of what remains of House Bill 500 as it came out of the ABC Committee included Farm Breweries. Representative Hurley, a Republican from Randolph County proposed an amendment to remove that verbiage from the bill. It failed, but let’s take a look at which members who are on the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers payroll voted FOR the amendment to remove the Farm Brewery verbiage so we can decide who should not hold office again in NC based on their proven record AGAINST craft beer.

No surprise to see the name of Representative James Boles Jr. of Moore County who heads the ABC Committee. He has thirteen thousand five hundred reasons to not allow the free market to thrive.

Representative Josh Dobson of McDowell County. He only has one thousand reasons to not allow the free market to thrive.

Representative Chris Malone of Wake County. He has four thousand five hundred reasons to not allow the free market to thrive.

Representative Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County. He only has one thousand reasons to not allow the free market to thrive.

Now there are others who should be held accountable as well. The sources of their campaign contribution have not been investigated, but if they are your representative you should take note.

The following reps voted FOR the amendment:

Ayes:	Democrat Representatives: L. Bell; Brisson; Hanes; Insko; Quick; Willingham	Republican Representatives: Arp; Blust; Boles; Boswell; Cleveland; Collins; Dobson; Elmore; Ford; Howard; Hurley; Iler; Jordan; Malone; McElraft; McNeill; Millis; Potts; Presnell; Riddell; Sauls; Setzer; Shepard; Stevens; Strickland; Torbett; R. Turner; Warren; White

How about those who ultimately voted AGAINST House Bill 500 when it hit the floor. That list includes:

Noes:

Democrat Representatives: Brisson; Quick

Republican Representatives: Adams; Bert Jones; Cleveland; Collins; Dobson; Ford; Henson; Howard; Hurley; Jordan; McNeill; Millis; Presnell; Riddell; Sauls; Setzer; Shepard; Stevens; Strickland; Torbett; R. Turner; Warren; White

So there is a nice list of people who should not earn your vote as they do not support craft beer. I see my representative on the list and he should know he will not get my vote when he is up for reelection. I like it when politicians show their true colors.

NCGA House Alcohol Beverage Control Committee

You know how they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. How about several photos which demonstrate a point. I got to wondering the House ABC Committee and their decision to gut House Bill 500 and why that might have happened. Then I took a few minutes and looked at the campaign contributions they have received from the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers and it paints a picture of pay to play politics. Take a gander at the screen shots below and see if you come to the same conclusion.

It should be noted a few are not in the pocket of the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers, but it should be obvious a majority of the committee are on Tim Kent’s payroll through campaign contributions.

House Bill 500 – Gutted?

Word on the street is House Bill 500 was gutted in the ABC Committee to remove the language which would increase the cap for self-distribution. The problem is the NCGA website doesn’t reflect any changes. I have it on good authority what happened is backroom politics spurred by generous giving from Tim Kent and the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers. Deep pockets have made fast friends. I guess legislators don’t care who they get in bed with provided they are getting paid. So our good friends at Craft Freedom will have to hope for a miracle or take the state to court to win their freedom. I know I’ll be looking hard at who has received funding from Timmay in the next election and will be sure to let everyone know when the jury has been rigged.

Tim Kent Is At It Again – H500

So this week Timmay went on a smear campaign against House Bill 500 by declaring 23% of North Carolina breweries are not paying their taxes. What he and his cronies did is take information and twist it to make it look as if small breweries are tax evaders. What was actually stated was “23 percent of resident breweries are not in total compliance.” So what does that mean exactly? Is it some of the breweries have asked for extensions of tax filings? Is is they have not paid their taxes? Is the check in the mail? No, what TK has done is twist the facts. So 23 percent becomes 1 in 4, which is a falsehood from the beginning. Tim could say 1 in 5 and be covered, but by stretching to 1 in 4 he becomes a slimy liar. Then to go further and say they “DON’T PAY THEIR TAXES” also pegs the pants on fire meter. He doesn’t actually know if they pay them or not or what level of “not in total compliance” they are. If he did then the personnel who told him would be breaking confidentiality which I’m pretty sure would end their employment with the state and might actually land Timmay in some hot water. I’m not showing the front side of the mailer below which indicates it comes from the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers and ends with the NCBeerFacts so we now have definitive proof of just how shady Tim and his gang are by depicting themselves as factual when in reality they are far from it.

Tim and the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers do not act in the best interest for North Carolina. We have no large Bud-Miller-Coors breweries anymore. We do have some big breweries, but not on the level of Miller which left the state. Most of Tim’s cronies are distributing for the Bud-Miller-Coors of the world and are working in the interest of foreign corporations so by default Tim is a pawn of foreign companies. What House Bill 500 will do is allow mid-sized breweries to become larger and hire MORE staff which will create jobs in the brewery and with their distribution. It will not take jobs away from beer distributors because they are already employed and busy keeping up with demand for the foreign corporation products. So if those people are not in danger of losing their jobs all this bill can do is CREATE jobs. Tim and his ilk would prefer to have this bill never get out of committee so you should help him fail. To do so please contact each of the members of the ABC committee via phone and urge them to vote for House Bill 500. Also take note of which representatives vote against the bill. You can use that as a voters guide on which representatives to oppose in the next election cycle.

Boles 919-733-5903
Bell 919-715-3017
Gill 919-733-5880
Dobson 919-733-5862
Hanes 919-733-5829
Hastings 919-715-2002
Holley 919-733-5758
Hurley 919-733-5865
Jones 919-733-5821
Lucas 919-733-5775
Malone 919-715-3010
Murphy 919-733-5757
Potts 919-715-0873
Richardson 919-715-3032
Saine 919-733-5782
Willingham 919-715-3024
Yarborough 919-715-0850
Zachary 919-715-8361

HB2 Bids NC Adieu

After a heated debate HB2 is gone baby gone. All that remains is a signature from North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and we can settle the matter for at least a short while. Ever since the HB2 was introduced to counteract an ill conceived Charlotte ordinance people have been up in arms to have it repealed. In December the deals fell through when neither side wanted to compromise. Today HB2 finally died with the passage of House Bill 142. The bill was a gutted bill so check the Ratified version on the NCGA website to see what actually passed. So what does this bill do exactly? It repeals HB2 and makes any new local ordinances void until at least December 30, 2020.

So the Religious are all up in arms because their children are not protected. These people are what some might call ignorant. HB2 offered no protection any more than a gun buster sign offers protection. HB2 was even worse, there was no repercussions stated in the legislation if someone did go against the statute. Basically trespassing was all someone could be charged with and in most cases they would simply be asked to leave. One who preyed on children would still be able to prey on small children and if they did then they would be subject to the criminal offense based on their actions, but not because of HB2. It was a sham only created to counteract the Charlotte ordinance which did not protect anyone from anything, it simply ensured ordinances like those in Charlotte ceased to have merit.

Now the LGBTQ (did I get all those abbreviations?) community is all up in arms because they find the legislation used to repeal HB2 to be discriminatory. I just cannot follow that logic. Read the legislation, it doesn’t discriminate, it simply allows only the General Assembly to set regulation access to restrooms, showers, and changing facilities. Of course the Supreme Court or any Court can dictate that and supposedly that was the thought process behind the December 2020 expiration date for one Section. I haven’t spent time listening to many LGBTQ statements, but one LGBT lawmaker (he left off the Q) was up in arms because the LGBTQ representatives were not included in the repeal discussions. How many freaking people does it take to write repeal legislation and handle out a deal? You say Roy Cooper is your Governor and you want him to speak on behalf of the LGBTQ community, then let him do his job and he WAS a big part of the repeal deal.

Here’s the dirty little secret which really isn’t much of a secret. The Governor and General Assembly bowed to the pressure of the NCAA to repeal HB2. They did not listen to the people, the news, various idiotic performer boycotts, or manufacturers who chose to build/relocate elsewhere. They caved to pressure from the NCAA and basketball. Yep, sports are what cause compromise and change and it should show the citizens of NC who is really in charge. It isn’t your religious group, your LGBTQ discrimination claims, or your common sense, it is sports, namely basketball. So to you zealots on the left and right you better watch out because the NCAA is coming down the lane.

At least we now all know where to go to take a piss and who owns NC!

House Bill 500 – About Time!

I have no idea if House Bill 500 which was introduced on March 28 will pass it the current form, but if it does we will all be better off. This revised ABC legislation does a host of things. I stole this synopsis from Facebook, but it sums it up well.

1) Makes crowlers legal for sale at retail
2) Allows breweries to sell wine and cider without food
3) Allows breweries to have off-site storage for beer
4) Allows QC sampling and other on-site sampling to be legal
5) Makes homebrew meetings & competitions legal
6) Authorizes farm breweries
7) Raises the self-distribution cap to 250,000 bbls wholesale (not produced)
8) Changes the wording of the franchise law to allow small breweries to more easily manage distribution agreements and partners
9) Clarifies and modernizes other parts of the law (mainly just makes things more straightforward and easy to understand without changing function)

Get behind this bill and contact your representative to support it so it doesn’t die.

Clear As Mud – NEIPA

Last night I had two beers from a new brewery in Charlotte and the bartender indicated they are adding flour to the boil to keep them cloudy and approximate the “New England” style beers. One was a Berliner Weiss and the other was an IPA. I’m sorry, but a glass full of murkiness is not appealing in anything other than a wheat beer and despite a Berliner Weiss being a wheat beer it is not murky like glass of yeast. I eventually became disgusted by both the Berliner and the IPA and had a difficult time finishing each. Whoever decided a glass full of milky beer was a good thing is an idiot or is just not capable of allowing a beer to condition long enough to drop clear. These beers last night were not slightly hazy or hazy, they were a glass of white mud. I think I’ll take a pass the next time I run into them out in about so I don’t get grossed out again.

Bourbon – Columbia, SC

It’s been rare in the past I have highlighted places I believe you should visit and I’ll try to correct that in the future. Last night I found myself in Columbia, SC at a bar named Bourbon and had an experience worth sharing. Most of the time any bar with a name like Bourbon or including Bourbon has very little Bourbon on the shelf when you actually get there. This place is the exception and was truly exceptional. They have a long list of Bourbons, many of which are near impossible to get even on the secondary market. The pricing on some was out of sorts, but there is a cost associated with procuring those fifths so I’m not going to begrudge them for their pricing. Some Bourbons were downright affordable to even be called cheap. You could get a half pour of any of their offerings and their selection was as good if not better than Front Street in Wilmington, NC which I consider the gold standard for Bourbon bars. They have food and it was very good, but the draw here is the bar and the Bourbon. So get in the car, head to Columbia, and thank me later.