So I wasn't posting on jazzfanz during the most recent legislative session.
Major ****ing disappointment!
The Utah Brewers Guild opposed SB 132 which would have changed the state's definition of "heavy beer" from 4%abv to 6%abv. This change was being pushed by Walmart and large international breweries since the majority of states that also had a 4%abv limit have abandoned that restriction recently. So the big international breweries, most owned by AB-InBev and SAB-Miller didn't want to continue to produce 4%abv beer for such a small market.
Our larger local breweries who get the majority of their sales through packaged beer were very much in favor of keeping the 4%abv limit, hoping that it would reduce competition and that they might get more retail space and larger market share. Unfortunately these larger local breweries (Uintah, Squatters and Wasatch) strong-armed the other members of the Utah Brewers Guild into towing the line.
The owner of Red Rock, Dr. Robert Jensen (yes he's also a medical doctor), representing the Utah Brewers Guild gave the most baffling and appalling statement to the legislature. I strongly encourage you to read it:
"
Hello, my uh, my name is Dr Robert Jensen, I’m a professor of Medicine at the University of Utah, and as you can see by my coat here, I’m also the owner of Red Rock Brewing Company, I’m also a board member of the Utah Brewing Association, and I’m here to just speak against the bill as it sits.
Uh, I’d like to make some quick points, not to take up too much time.
First one, has to do with choice.
The present bill is going to move a tremendous number of beers into the grocery store. The grocery store, the aisles, are filled with beers, like Budweiser and Coors, and a little bit of Utah craft beer. Who determines where that beer goes, how much beer goes onto the shelves, is a very very small number of people.
The distributors.
And they will then determine what goes there. Their number one customers are Budweiser, Miller-Coors. These are companies that are owned outside of the United States. Miller-Coors is a South African company. Budweiser is AB-InBev which is owned by a Brazilian Company. So these are decisions that are made from afar, pushing more product, by big companies, who actually own a lot of small breweries that they say are craft and so-forth.
What will happen, is they will chose, for the consumers a limited number of beers; where the DABC presently responds to consumers and says “what would you like?” Consumer says, “I like this beer,” we’ll bring it in, “we like this beer”, we’ll bring it in.
So choices will be limited, when this happens.
Two, I’d like to talk about beer consumption. Let’s be really clear, the alcohol that is going to be sold in grocery stores is going to go up 50 percent. 150 percent from where it is today. It increases.
When I go out and have a beer, I have A. Beer.
Period.
I don’t worry about about if it has this much or that much alcohol in it. And if I’m accustomed to having two beers with dinner, I’m suddenly going to be over the limit, at the 4.8 alcohol by weight.
Very easy to get over the limit with that. So that’s a big point.
Kids, a fact, they get most of their alcohol from their parents. Mom and Dad go out and buy a 6pack of beer, little Bobby goes in and he grabs his usual 2 beers. And suddenly he just grabbed 3 beers.
So those are some points, that .. you don’t drink beers in single cans or single bottles, you drink, you don’t drink part of it, you don’t adjust your thinking to it, whether you’re an adult or a kid, so that’s going to change the way things go forward.
Thank you."
So the big takeaway with that statement is that
1 -- People drink a certain number of beers, regardless. He's implying here that people consume beer as part of some uncontrollable habit and have no real control over the number of beers they consume or any regard for personal responsibility and safety.
2 -- Little Bobby takes his usual 2 beers from daddy's six-pack but if we increase the alcohol percentage it'll be like Little Bobby is drinking 3 beers. I mean Little Bobby can handle 2 beers at 4%, but when he's drinking 2 beers at 6% now we've got a real problem with underage drinking.
The Utah Brewers Guild claimed that they opposed the 6% limit because what they really wanted was no limit. But the statement above certainly isn't an argument in favor of no limit. It is a statement that absolutely panders to the stereotypes the hard core LDS legislators have regarding people who consume alcohol. It was reinforcement for their irrational views on our alcohol laws. It was completely disgusting.
So what ended up happening is that they "compromised" and got an increase from 4%abv to 5%abv, which is a limit that still stifles many craft beer styles, but fits over 90% of the mega breweries brands perfectly (Budweiser is 5%abv normally).
