We’ve Fixed the Beer Tax (And Other Tidbits of News)!

Just a short post on this rainy Thursday, but it’s great to be able to say that Tennessee’s 1950s beer tax has been fixed! The final votes for the Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 took place on Monday in the Senate (30-1) and on Wednesday in the House (87-2). Now all it awaits is signature from Governor Haslam! Co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Sexton (R-Crossville) and Rep. Kelsey (R-Germantown), and the folks behind Fix the Beer Tax have worked tirelessly the past couple of months and it’s great to see all that hard work and campaigning pay off on the first go around. So, cheers to that!

If you don’t have plans for the night of April 23rd, Bosco’s announced its annual Brewmasters Dinner the other day and the menu looks delicious! Nick and I went last year and we’ll be going again this year. I’m especially excited about the Wasabi shrimp entrée, and what do you know, it’s served with my favorite type of beer! Seats will fill up fast if they haven’t already, so call and reserve your spot now!

And lastly, in house news, Nick and I will start moving boxes in the last week of April and we’ll move our furniture in May 1st! I’ve got big plans for decorating our new place and Nick has already made a big purchase which will be put to good use when we have a housewarming party —  so stay tuned! Cheers!

April Showers…

Tulips at University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Memphis, Tennessee

Bring May flowers… flowers I hope to plant, at some point or another, after Nick and I move into our house at the end of the month! After searching daily for a house that fit all of our requirements, we finally found a nice one to rent and we’re very excited to start this next stage of our relationship. I won’t get all sappy on here, but with the direction our relationship is going, we decided this is the next logical step :) It’s going to be a great house for entertaining family and friends and it’s plenty spacious for all of our needs, especially storing (and expanding) Nick’s homebrewing equipment. He’s already planning on getting a 14 cubic foot chest freezer to make a new keezer, and then using the current seven cubic foot keezer solely for fermenting. And I’ve already been on Pinterest planning DIY projects and taking note of quick and simple organization tips that I never would have thought of before. What did we ever do before that website existed?

And now for the beer news update:

• The Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 passed the Senate and House Finance Committees today and it will come to a full floor vote within the week — great news!
• It’s good to see there are some legislators in Alabama with some sense! A new bill to legalize homebrewing in Alabama passed through the House today on a 58-33 vote. Mississippi homebrewers got good news last month, so let’s hope the same for their neighbors. However, after reading some of the comments from AL representatives today (and judging from a previous debate on this same topic), Alabama may still be a good while away from legalizing homebrewing…

Well, off to start sorting, organizing, packing, etc. — cheers!

Memphis Girls’ Pint Out Kickoff

I cannot express how happy I am with last night’s turnout! About 20 wonderful ladies made their way to Young Avenue Deli to kick off our chapter, and we enjoyed some delicious beer and discussed the goals for our chapter for the coming year. I had been promoting MemphisGPO a lot via Twitter and it was very nice to finally meet some of my Twitter friends! Even though these social media sites have been around since I was in college, I still find it amazing the connections that can be made through them. There are so many fantastic Memphis women who enjoy quality beer and want to expand their knowledge and palate and I’m just so so excited that they’re all as excited as I am about this endeavor!

It’s looking to be a busy year for MemphisGPO, as we discussed lots of great event ideas and I’m hoping to bring them all to fruition. Some of the events we discussed: beer pairing dinner at Bosco’s, tour of Ghost River Brewing, participating in 5ks as a team (gotta get our fitness on to counteract the beer drinkin’!), chapter yard sale, clothing swap, a road trip to Nashville to meet up with NashvilleGPO, and the list goes on! We also discussed tapping into our philanthropic side by helping with causes like Pints for Prostates and Beer for Boobs, and local NPOs, among other things. And with homebrewing being such a big part of my life now, I’m going to try to incorporate some educational homebrewing events into the mix — especially after meeting a fellow Bluff City Brewer girlfriend!

Ideally, I’d like to have at least one MemphisGPO-specific event each month, and depending on the beer happenings going on around town, we can always plan a chapter outing to some of those, too. And since we’re all working women, i also want to have various happy hour meetups throughout the month to just catch up with one another and forget the working woes of the day/week ;)

And in other beer news:

• The Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 passed the House and Senate Finance Subcommittees on Monday! Next week: full House and Senate Finance Committees.
• The inaugural Memphis Beer Week schedule was announced this week and there is a beaucoup of great events that week, it’s going to be hard deciding which ones to go to! I know we’ll definitely plan on going to one of the sour tasting events and glass night at Flying Saucer — gotta keep adding to our glass collection!

No Longer Outlaws

It was a HUGE day for Mississippi homebrewers! This morning, Governor Bryant signed Senate Bill #2183 and in doing so, made Mississippi the 49th state to legalize homebrewing (effective July1)! woohoo! I know the folks over at Raise Your Pints will be celebrating tonight! Things are always done a little slower here in the South, but it’s refreshing to see Mississippi get with the times. Now if only that pesky state to its East could get its act together, then every homebrewer in the country could legally enjoy his/her pastime.

And in Tennessee beer news, Senate Bill #0422 continues to make its way up the totem pole as the Senate State and Local/House Local Committees approved the Beer Tax Reform Act. Representative Cameron Sexton said of today’s events,

Today was an important step towards reforming a tax that is working against Tennessee. The subject may be beer, but this is about ultimately creating jobs and growing business.

Next up, the Finance, Ways & Means Committees.

That’s all I’ve got for today — cheers!

ICYMI: Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 Passes Subcommittee

Tennessee’s Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 passed the House Subcommittee last week! This is great news for craft beer communities across the state, and this week, it will make its way to the House and Senate Committees. We’re one step closer to getting rid of our old school policy!

Also last week, it was announced that “The Beacon” – a collaborative ale by Yazoo Brewing Company and Calfkiller Brewing Company – would be released in bottles to bring further attention to the tax that “ales Tennessee.” I was curious to know if this beer would be coming to Memphis since we still tend to get the shorter end of the beer stick, and after tweeting @yazoobrew, I was told it would hit the Bluff City some time this week! Cheers!