Lovers of craft beer take heed: a new push for more stringent regulations is under serious consideration in the South, which could spell trouble for drinkers across the nation.
A new proposal in Alabama would require craft breweries and brew-pubs that sell products for off-premise consumption — think sales of growlers, craft cans and so forth — to record sensitive personal information from each customer. This would include the customer’s name, address, phone number and date of birth.
Opponents of the bill, however, are stepping up to ask an important question: What is the point of all this?
Would information about a citizen’s alcohol purchasing habits find their way into the hands of health insurance providers? Would advertisers manage to gain access to this sensitive information? Would the government itself use this data for any sketchy purpose?
“The implications of this should be highly concerning, not only to craft beer consumers, but to all people throughout the state,” noted Free the Hops, a grassroots organization made up primarily of craft brewery operators. “As nonsensical as it might seem, this rule would essentially empower [administrators] to come to an individual’s house to confirm his or her purchase of a six pack of beer.”
The stated aim of the proposal is not far off from that summary. Last March, the state passed a bill that allows breweries that make less than 60,000 barrels of beer per year to sell directly to customers for off-premise use, but with limits on how much each customer could purchase. Craft brewers praised the bill because it allowed them to can or growler-cap their own beer and sell it to customers, who would then take it home to drink. But the state-imposed limit of 288 ounces per customer per day created monitoring issues. Just how would the state make sure no one was going home with more than the allowed amount of beer?
More to the point, is such a limit even necessary?
Alabama legislators were silent on the question, preferring to defer to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which is the group that regulates the state’s alcohol industry. The rules and regulations of the ABC Board hold serious sway on how regular folks go about enjoying their buzzy suds.
This time, however, the board may have gone too far for consumers’ tastes. It claims that collecting personal information is the best way of assuring no one buys more beer than they are legally allotted.
But in the age of constant online monitoring, do we really need NSA-style tracking of our beer drinking habits?
“Even more concerning is that the ABC Board states that this information will be subject to their verification,” Free the Hops noted in their opposition statement. “The members of Free the Hops fully oppose this proposed rule. It represents an unprecedented, unnecessary, and overreaching invasion of privacy. It is something that unfairly targets beer consumers, but also, frankly, has frightening implications for everyone.”
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Originally Posted by Ron Paul
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