Several clubs in Kansas are banding together to push for homebrew law changes in the State. Please, we need your help to contact your representative to gain their support for House Substitute for HB2223. We tried to push this bill through last year and will push harder this year.
We cannot bring homebrew outside of our homes. This means no club meetings, no tastings, etc.
We cannot serve our homebrew to people outside of our “immediate family”.
We cannot host homebrew competitions.
We are aiming to get these things changed. Why? Because we love homebrew and want to share it!
A lot of you know that I am getting married at the end of this year. You know what’s illegal for me? I cannot serve my fiance the beer that we brew together as we do not meet the legal definition of ‘immediate family’. How ludicrous is that? We brew together, but I cannot serve it to him. Ridiculous.
We also cannot host competitions. This is not a huge issue for my club, as we reside on the State Line and can jump to Missouri, but it is a huge deal for all of the homebrewers in the middle of the state who just want a little feedback on their beers.
I urge those of you who are Kansas residents to contact your Representative and help change the laws!
Indeed, it seems the bill is going to move fast. It must be passed by the House, which sounds like it will vote on it tomorrow, in order to move on to the Senate.
we’ve contacted many, many reps. Dozens have responded, generally favorably, when presented with the facts and our fairly innocuous goals. KS Craft Brewers Guild supports us too. We’ll see…
From our lobbyist:
Sub HB 2223 was just passed to Final Action by voice vote. Congratulations! This is the next step, there will be a FA(Final Action) vote on Monday, if/when it passes it is on to the Senate. Time to renew messages to the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee and the entire Senate.
bunch of amendments with nothing to do with homebrewing added onto our bill in Senate Committee today. Also so glad they clarified what a “guest” is. :
Unless an amendment was added to kill the bill, this is just how legislation occurs. Have to get the pork on the bill to pick up the votes. Consider it a good sign that the bill will probably pass the senate.
update from yesterday on the Kansas bill (which passed the House in February and 40-0 in the Senate last month, but with amendments.)
"Earlier today, the House met and just before noon here’s what happened to our bill: Sub for HB 2223 - Alcoholic beverages; relating to homemade fermented beverages. The House Nonconcurred; Conference Committee requested; the House appointed Brunk, Couture-Lovelady and Ruiz. No meeting announced yet (Senate has to appoint conferees).
The plan is for the House to concur tomorrow before a conference committee meets."
OK, so I know we’ve got some legal experts, so I’ve just got to ask: What am I not getting?
As I understand it the Committee is a safety measure, but if the plan is to concur before they ever meet, what is the point? Wouldn’t it be easier to, you know, concur the first time?!?
Just more dealing to get approval on this bill in exchange for something else in the future. It’s rare for a bill to pass both houses and not have the conference version get voted through.
Governor signed bill yesterday. It’ll be weeks before it gets published and becomes official, but very soon I’ll have to find some different laws to break. 8)
