Dermody hatchets Sunday sales bill.

In the end, the entities with the most cash refused to accept a plan that would compel them to spend some of it.

Credit the package store lobby in this round: Artfully played, indeed.

And remember: There IS NO BAN on Sunday carry-out sales as they pertain to beer and wine produced by Indiana's small breweries and wineries.

UPDATE: Indiana lawmaker kills Sunday alcohol sales bill, by Mark Peterson (WNDU)

INDIANAPOLIS The scene that played out at the Indiana Statehouse today could have been called, ‘Death of a Sunday-sales-man.’

“It’s been made clear, I don’t have the votes,” said Ind. Rep. Thomas Dermody, (R) LaPorte, as he decided to give up on H.B. 1624 which would have lifted Indiana’s 80 year old ban on Sunday carry-out alcohol sales.

Diary: Indiana craft beer, and how drinking it at the State Fair and buying it at a farmers market may lead to civilization's collapse.

(My diary is the place for unexpurgated thoughts. Maybe I'll edit them later. Probably not)

Did you know that Indiana package stores believe Indiana beer and wine at the State Fair to be a bad idea?

Did you know Indiana package stores also oppose allowing small Indiana breweries to do what wineries have done with their products for thirty years running, and sell local beer at local farmers markets?

Hmm. Did I miss the press release in which Indiana package stores were appointed Official Godlike Overseers of the legislative process in Indiana?

I believe I must have. And it's really lamentable.

So let's just be clear, with a personal thought entirely unconnected with policies determined by my Guild, of which I'm a director: At times like this, heartfelt protestations of undying support and friendship from the package store association (as an entity ... certainly not individuals, whose opinions vary, although Big Red Liquors has openly advanced both these views, and one must express confusion as to why Big Red is doing so) -- well, shall we say, these sonorous proclamations of fidelity ring somewhat hollow?

With "friends" like these, who needs prohibitionist enemies?

Yes, I shall say so. I didn't use the word hypocritical, so give me that much. I might have, and no court in the world would rule against my choice of wording.

My hope is that the House will see past the grandstanding and approve a couple of bills that empower the small brewing business while taking absolutely nothing away from small package stores.

Upland opposes HJR-3. So does NABC. So should BIG.

I'd like to thank our longtime friends at Upland Brewing Company in Bloomington for understanding that beer isn't consumed in a vacuum, and publicly joining the struggle against HJR-3.

What is HJR-3?

HJR-3 (formerly HJR-6) is a proposed amendment that would permanently alter the Indiana Constitution to define marriage and could potentially affect hundreds of rights related to marriage under current Indiana law.

In the 2014 legislative session, Indiana lawmakers can choose either to table or vote down the amendment or send it to voters for a statewide referendum next November. If it does not pass or is not called for action, our Constitution will be protected.

In addition to the duplicative and restrictive first sentence of the amendment, no one has been able to clearly define what effects the second sentence would have on existing marriages, domestic partner benefits, human rights ordinances, legal contracts and benefits for unmarried couples.

As a progressive beer guy, it's a confusing time for me.

Republican legislators have been quite friendly when it comes to advancing the interests of craft brewing in Indiana, among them New Albany's own Rep. Ed Clere (District 72). At the same time, the very notion of HJR-3 is potentially damaging to businesses like ours. Rep. Clere is rare among Republicans in that he has opposed HJR-3, and for this we're appreciative. His colleagues supporting HJR-3 are doing so against the wishes of businesses far larger than any brewery, including Eli Lilly and Cummins.

That's right: Republicans legislating against the interests of Indiana business. Verily, it is a strange world we inhabit.

It's my view that if this madness goes to the voters, the Brewers of Indiana Guild as a whole should publicly and emphatically reject it. Upland currently does not have a director on the board, so I'll happily be the one to make the motion. Let's hope it doesn't come to this, and the Indiana GOP somehow becomes reacquainted with the notion of sanity.

Moreover, if craft beer doesn't embrace what's right and reject what's wrong, why are we bothering?

There's one fewer prohibitionist in the legislature today. Amen.

The Brewers of Indiana Guild has been informed that Representative Bill Davis, Chairman of the House Public Policy committee, has resigned his seat to become Executive Director of Indiana's Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

Why is this of significance? First, BIG's Lee Smith explains the legislative procedure:

All alcoholic beverage bills are automatically assigned to the House or Senate Public Policy committees, and must make it out of committee "alive" to continue through the legislative process. If a bill dies in committee, it is indeed dead and cannot not be debated or amended.

As chairman of the Public Policy Committee, Davis was in a position to squelch legislation to advance craft beer, and as a teetotaling prohibitionist of the old school, this is precisely what he did -- not always, but often enough. Given that Indiana's Republican legislators in the main have been rational about the craft beer business from the pragmatic standpoint of statewide "homegrown" economic development, Davis stood out like a sore Baptist with his self-professed hostility toward beverage alcohol as a valued component of a truly civilized society.

It's hard for me to imagine a successor s hostile, so fingers are crossed. It's morning, but somewhere, it's beer-thirty.

Bill Davis Resigns House Seat To Take Position With Gov. Administration