Homebrew belongs in competitions. Shipping it there shouldn’t be so complicated.
The AHA Board of Directors has adopted a resolution to pursue a safe, transparent, and legal way for homebrewers to ship beer, mead, and cider to sanctioned competitions within the United States.
This is the start of the work, not the finish line. Read the full advocacy statement here to learn why the issue matters and stay tuned for what the AHA plans to do next.
It’s never been as much of a publicly announced focus - so releasing a position/policy statement like this makes sure the members know that this is a recognized priority for the Org. In terms of time, remember how long it took for us to get insurance!
I applaud the effort and think it’s a worthy endeavor. 20 years ago the world was a different place, people are different and opinions are different. So, why not take another run at it instead of saying “we tried it before, it didn’t work so now it’s over.” Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
This is what the organization should be doing now. . . and should have been doing for many years. Advocacy for home brewers should be the number one organizational priority.
I don’t think anyone is pretending that this is going to be the sort of nut we crack during a morning coffee break. But also just because we haven’t solved it so far doesn’t mean we should not try again!
One of the big things here is narrowing the focus to specifically competition shipping. Instead of trying a big swing and make homebrew legal across the board - maybe we can shimmy open the door with competitions.
I’m certainly not saying don’t try. I’m simply wondering what the strategy will be. What’s the plan, man? Why should the shippers sign on? What’s in it for them?
Private carriers like FedEx, UPS, etc. seem to be favoring commercial brewers by excluding home brewers from shipping. I can’t see that changing. But I wonder if USPS might be ready to reconsider, given the current federal preference for less regulation overall?
I recall from previous efforts that it was pretty much the opposite. We decided it would be easier to convince a private shipper rather than trying to get the law changed. As I remember, DHL was the most amenable to discussing it, but ultimately decided there wasn’t enough money in it to be worth the hassle. That was probably 15 years ago. Maybe things have changed.
If it’s a question of volume / revenue, then restricting the argument to beer competitions is probably not the way to go. On the other hand, if it’s a question of risk (e.g., ensuring that the recipient is of legal age), then beer comp submissions are probably less risky. It would be good to know what the primary concern is.
If this has been attempted several times in the past, are there any notes available from prior attempts which may be helpful in forming a strategy for the upcoming effort?
I’m assuming that this impacts the shipping of any alcohol by private individuals. If there’s some loophole already available for another type of alcoholic beverage, it should be a fairly easy argument for expanding to homebrew.
