Boycott UPS

[bcmaui]

You better boycott both FEDEX as well as UPS as neither technically accepts beer, only wine. Call your beer of the month club and verify if you want.

http://seattlebeernews.com/?p=1928

The key here is shipment direct to the "consumer". As I said, the wine industry fought hard and only recently won this legal battle to ship directly to consumers. The beer industry mostly does not care, just the craft brewers. As many craft brewers are selling all the product they can make as it is (Russian River, et. al.), there probably is not the urgency on this matter as there has been in the wine business.

Beer can be shipped to consumers in many states if you are registered with your state and pay taxes on what you import and you file on a regular basis and this is the hassle that UPS and FEDEX wants to avoid - if they ship to you and you do not follow through on the paperwork, they can be in trouble. Wine does not have this problem, especially after the 2005 supreme court ruling that called bullshit on states that would allow wine intra state shipments but not interstate. With tight state budgets across the nation I know many states are cracking down on loopholes, and this may be one of them.

I'm sure FEDEX and UPS would love to take your money otherwise, but there is a dance going on here and my impression is that beer shipments are like gays in the military - don't ask, don't tell. They piggy backed on the progress the wine industry made, but that ruling never really addressed beer specifically, only wine. If you pretend it is wine, they will take it.

Maybe you could still get around this if you told UPS or FEDEX that you were shipping "Barleywine" and avoid the word "beer" completely?

And for wine retailers this is still a battle and by no means over. Below is a "craft wine" group that is still pushing for industry reform:

http://www.specialtywineretailers.org/

[bcmaui]

p.s. I will not mention the name of the wine shop that I have purchased barleywine from via UPS.

Maybe the continuing actions of Pennsylvania will get the beer industry interested in the topic:

http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/more-o ... stributor/

"The state continues to confiscate Duvel, Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Red Ale and even Hacker-Pschorr, despite all three brands having been registered and sold for many years. Russian River Brewing’ Supplication was also one of the beers confiscated, but in that case Vinnie Cilurzo admitted he’d simply forgotten the paperwork for the very small number of cases shipped to Pennsylvania. As reported by Russell, Cilurzo stated. “We are a small mom-and-pop brewery and every once in a while something slips through the cracks.”

"What continues to be troubling is that this is essentially just paperwork errors and miscommunication and it’s being treated like the crime of the century."

[ColonialFootsoldier]

This is more related to home brew shipping than having commercial beer shipped, but didn't someone mention on the session a couple months back that their was a bill forming in congress to allow home brew to be shipped through out the country? Does anyone else remember that or have any more information about it?

[bcmaui]

This is more related to home brew shipping than having commercial beer shipped, but didn't someone mention on the session a couple months back that their was a bill forming in congress to allow home brew to be shipped through out the country? Does anyone else remember that or have any more information about it?

I remember them mentioning that it was now legal to put homebrew in your car in Washington State and take it to a friend's house or to a homebrew competition, but don't recall any national common sense legislation of what you speak of above being discussed.

The 3-tier system is really messed up - states have granted distributors most of the power over shipping and the states like it that way so they can control tax collections. I don't think the Feds can do anything unless they address the 3 tier system directly or if industry groups like the small winemakers chip away at the edges. Even though home brewing is no longer a federal offense, the federal government is leaving it up to the individual states to set alcohol policy.

The shipping of beer to consumers is such a small segment of the overall beer industry that I don't think it is even on the radar, but maybe if enough home brewers are interested, we could start with homebrew and add the commercial stuff later if the craft brewer's have time and interest to join the fight. Wine got the exemption because there were enough small PRODUCERS of wine bitching to their state about being able to direct sell and direct ship within their state, but not to other states. As there are more and more craft beer PRODUCERS creating jobs in their communities they may also start putting pressure on their states to relax shipping restrictions.

It is also possible wine is a totally different animal and there will never be enough interest in the market of shipping beer to affect change?

As far as I can tell the AHA has only focused it's energy on legalizing homebrewing, and the shipment of beer to homebrewing contests. They have not made it an issue to fight for the right for consumer's to receive beer shipments to date from what I can determine.

It would be a good question for Charlie P. if this is something the AHA can work on next, or if not, why not.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/p ... ted-states

"Beer made under §25.205 may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use including use at organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions such as homemaker's contests, tastings or judging. Beer removed under this section may not be sold or offered for sale."

Nothing about purchasing commercial beer from retailers, nor about the shipping of beer from one home brewer to another.