FuzzyBrew

The 3rd annual Mississippi Craft Beer Week, a celebration of the Magnolia State’s growing craft beer culture, kicks off today.

The week features pint nights, pub crawls, cask tappings and beer dinners and concludes Saturday, July 28, with the 3rd Annual Top of the Hops ­Beer Fest in Jackson.

Go here for a complete list of events. Also, follow @MSCraftBeerWeek on Twitter and check out the Mississippi Craft Beer Week Facebook page.

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.

Yet despite these barriers, our friends to the south in the Magnolia State are showing their passion for craft beer this week.

By official proclamation of the governor, Mississippi Craft Beer Week is under way for a second year.

Special beer dinners, pint nights and firkin tappings are scheduled across the state, from Southaven to Starkville to Gulfport.

The week culminates with the Top of the Hops Beer Festival in Jackson, where more than 150 craft beers will be available to sample. (For a full list of the week’s events, go here.)

The week is all about raising awareness of the craft beer movement while also shining a light on Mississippi’s archaic beer laws, which prohibit sales of about a third of the world’s beer styles. For more information, check out the good folks at the non-profit Raise Your Pints, “whose mission is to help bring the highest quality beers in the world to Mississippi.”

Cheers, Mississippi.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has given a nod to craft beer drinkers and brewers in his state, as well as the efforts of Raise Your Pints, issuing an official proclamation declaring Mississippi Craft Beer Week.

Craft Beer Week is coming up July 23-30 and will include events all over the state of Mississippi. (Go here for a listing of events, or follow @MSCraftBeerWeek on Twitter.)

Raise Your Pints is a grassroots, non-profit organization that’s trying to change Mississippi’a archaic beer laws and raise the 5% ABW beer limit. (The 5% limit excludes about a third of the world’s beer styles.)

Kudos to the folks at Raise Your Pints!

Meanwhile, here’s the full text of the governor’s proclamation:

WHEREAS, Mississippi Craft Beer Week is a time to enjoy not only craft beer, but also the southern hospitality of Mississippi’s restaurants and pubs, all while benefiting these small businesses economically; and

WHEREAS, we recognize the considerable contributions of the brewers, distributors and retailers of craft beers and their continuous improvement of the craft beer culture and the community as a whole; and

WHEREAS, increased support of homebrewers and their aesthetic, innovative creations is important to increasing the diversity of the American craft beer industry, which benefits the economy through job creation, and

WHEREAS, Raise Your Pints is a dedicated grassroots movement of passionate craft beer enthusiasts who advocate the responsible practice of craft beer enjoyment and continually work toward advancing the craft beer culture in Mississippi:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Haley Barbour, Governor of the State of Mississippi, hereby proclaim the week of July 23-30 2011, as Mississippi Craft Beer Week in the State of Mississippi.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Mississippi to be affixed.

DONE in the City of Jackson, on the twenty-ninth day of June in the year of our Lord, two thousand and eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

HALEY BARBOUR
GOVERNOR