FuzzyBrew

Anheuser-Busch has joined with Raise Your Pints to try to change Mississippi's beers laws.

Beer giant Anheuser-Busch and its independent distributors in Mississippi have joined the fight to raise the state’s alcohol-by-weight (ABW) limit on beer.

The maker of Budweiser and Bud Light has joined with the nonprofit Raise Your Pints and members of the Mississippi Malt Beverage Association to support legislation that would raise the ABW limit on beer made and sold in the state from 5 to 8 percent, according to a story that appeared Tuesday on the PR Newswire.

Anheuser-Busch is proud to support the effort to raise the ABW limit for beer in Mississippi,” said Doug Bailey, region vice president of state affairs at Anheuser-Busch. “Increasing the state’s ABW limits will allow beer drinkers access to a greater variety of beers, including many of Anheuser-Busch’s high-end, specialty beers.  It also will boost the state’s beer and hospitality industries.” [source]

Mississippi is the only state that limits ABW for beer to just 5 percent, which in turns prohibits sales of about a third of the world’s beer styles.

We are pleased to have Anheuser-Busch’s support in our effort to increase the ABW limit for beer in Mississippi. A change would not only benefit Mississippians who wish to have the same beer choices already enjoyed by most Americans, but also the state’s small businesses,” said Butch Bailey, president of Raise Your Pints. “It’s a great opportunity to make Mississippi a better place to do business, a more attractive tourist destination, and improve the cultural life of our citizens.” [source]

Raise Your Pints is also seeking to make homebrewing legal in the state. For more information, visit the group’s website.

The Mobile Press-Register had a nice story last week on Lucky Town Brewing Company, which is in the midst of a Kickstarter project to raise funds to become a commercial brewery.

Lucky Town, based in Jackson, Miss., would be the state’s second craft brewery. Through its Kickstarter project, Lucky Town is asking for $20,000 but has a higher goal of $40,000 for start-up funds.

For now, Lucky Town Brewing Company is a “very well put-together concept,” says Lucas Simmons, brewmaster for the yet-to-be brewery. He’s been homebrewing for nearly nine years, but it wasn’t until he took home awards for stout and overall high gravity beer at the 2010 Outlaw Homebrew Competition in Hattiesburg that an old college friend from Mississippi State suggested he pursue it as a career.

That friend, Chip Jones, is now distribution and sales manager for Lucky Town. Special Events Coordinator Angela Blackburn and R&D Manager Brandon Blacklidge fill out the four-person team, who are all in their late 20s or early 30s and “who kind of merged into something more [than friends],” according to Simmons. “It’s kind of been fortuitous that we’re friends, but that on top of that, we’re all hard-working and very motivated and contribute different things.”

Read the full story at al.com. And check out the video below from the folks at Lucky Town.

Efforts to revamp Mississippi’s archaic beer laws stalled last year, but a new state legislative session is starting.

Bills endorsed by the non-profit Raise Your Pints, whose mission is to “help bring the highest quality beers in the world to Mississippi,” will soon be back on the table.

“We’re waiting on the MS Legislature to get situated with committee assignments, then our bills will be introduced. Stay tuned,” Raise Your Pints tweeted on Friday.

In Mississippi, you can’t buy a beer that’s over 5% alcohol by weight. You can’t even legally brew your own beer at home.

So is this the year that beer enthusiasts will see progress in Mississippi?

According to The Clarion-Ledger’s state government beat reporter Elizabeth Crisp, that remains to be seen.

Crisp blogged about the issue Monday. She noted that the previous Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, who had prevented past bills from being discussed by his committee and effectively rendered them dead on arrival, was not reappointed to that post this year.

I recently asked new Finance Committee Chair Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, about the efforts.

As Finance chairman, such bills would come through his committee, but Fillingane said on Friday that he has not seen any beer proposals this year and, therefore, did not want to speculate on the route he would take with them.

“Obviously, anytime you start looking at the issue of alcohol it becomes a more controversial topic in Mississippi,” he said. [source]

We’ll keep you posted on the efforts of Raise Your Pints this legislative session.

Broadcast Brewing and Fat Bottom Brewing are moving into East Nashville.

An East Nashville warehouse will soon be transformed into a “beer complex” featuring two production craft breweries with taprooms.

Broadcast Brewing Company and Fat Bottom Brewing have signed leases in sections of the old Fluffo Mattress building at Main Street and Ninth.

Fat Bottom is owned by Ben Bredesen, son of former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, and was the first to sign a lease in the East Nashville space.

I really believe that the more craft breweries there are in Nashville, the better we will all do, and I’m excited to create a brewery complex in East Nashville. Together, I think we can draw more people in, and at the end of the day Broadcast and Fat Bottom are both trying to create a packaging brewery, not a pub business,” Bredesen, a longtime homebrewer, wrote recently on his blog.

Bredesen plans to open the brewery in mid-May, according to the Nashville Post, and wants to create beers that are “bigger and more exciting” than standard local brews. Bredesen’s space is about 5,500 square feet.

Meanwhile, Broadcast Brewing, founded by Mike Causey, is scheduled to open in the fall.

After many fits and starts and looking at many many many buildings and empty warehouses, Broadcast Brewing Company has finally found a home. The lease has been signed and we are happy to be new members of the East Nashville community. Our new home is the Fluffo building on Main Street. We are very excited and looking forward to brewing up some great beer in our new home. We will be keeping you up to date much more frequently now that we have completed this step. All in all a great day for Broadcast Brewing and one step closer to sharing our beers with you,” according to the brewery’s Facebook page.

For more, check out Broadcast Brewing on Facebook and Twitter. Also, follow Fat Bottom on Facebook and Twitter and keep up with the brewery’s progress on the Fat Bottom Blog.