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Better Beer Law is Outdated

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 03:00 CST

By Gzedit

QUIRKY old West Virginia laws rooted in the Prohibition era make it tough on tourist attractions, small businesses and others who could profit by the manufacture and sale of gourmet beers.

Current state law allows only "nonintoxicating" beer, defined as brew with an alcohol content of no more than 6 percent. This definition is laughable, as multitudes of tipsy college students and tavern patrons can attest. The limit applies to typical grocery store brands commonly abused by young people.

For a couple of decades now, microbreweries with regional names and appeal have been growing in popularity. Their beers tend to have higher alcohol, some up to 15 percent.

Despite consumer demand, West Virginia's upscale restaurants, ski resorts and other outlets have not been allowed to stock these beers. This puts border establishments at a disadvantage, compared to nearby ones across the state line. Who knows how many West Virginia-brewed beers might have caught on nationally or internationally, if they had been allowed to acquire a West Virginia following first?

A bill before the Legislature would allow beers with alcohol content up to 15 percent. That's merely the potency of many wines, and far weaker than whiskey and other "hard" liquors.

Opposition has come from a funny direction - the West Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association. "We think alcohol should be consumed in moderation," lobbyist John Casey said in the Sunday Gazette- Mail.

True. But the beer-sellers group probably is worried less about moderation than about loss of sales of the big-brand suds they distribute - brands that spend millions on TV advertising and sponsoring college campus events.

Why not let specialty beer join the rest of drinks allowed in West Virginia? Any problems with the pending bill can be fixed.

If people are concerned about crime around beer-only establishments, those bars could be excluded from selling the high- alcohol beer.

No one advocates selling beer to minors or drinking to excess. The same public health concerns and anti-alcoholism warnings apply to gourmet beer as to regular beer, wine or liquor.

West Virginia has invested plenty of time, energy and money into building its tourism industry. The state has staked a certain amount of future success on that industry. Yet, when a diner sits down to a fine meal - whether at Snowshoe or in Charleston - a request for a gourmet beer is often answered with an apologetic explanation of the state's archaic law. These diners go away thinking, "How backward."

Passing the specialty beer law would change that.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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