Indiana legislative update.

The Indy Star's Amy Haneline has the lowdown on alcoholic beverage bills in the Indiana legislature, including artisan distilling Sunday sales, growler refills for cider and mead (the "New Day Law") and increased three-way permits for Hamilton and Boone counties.

The first two are "fixes," thus preferred by legislators during the short session. The latter is the latest manifestation of sheer tomfoolery, insofar as three-ways are subject to outmoded quotas, the beer/wine permits are "plentiful."

Increased alcohol permits, Sunday sales for artisan distilleries passes Senate committee

Riverfront permits, carry-out growlers and Roger's status as lightning rod for esoteric regulatorydom.

Is anyone noticing a pattern?

2013: The Floyd County Health Department decides temporary food permits should apply to draft beer pours, and is proven mistaken.

PourGate 2013: It took two years, but this new law silences Dr. Tom Harris and the Floyd County Health Department.

2014: Indiana's requirement for weenies in the freezer (food service requirement) comes under scrutiny, and is amended.

Another legislative win: Effective July 1, revised food requirements for Indiana brewery taprooms.

2015: Decades later, Indiana's riverfront development three-way permits suddenly become incompatible with carry-out sales from small breweries.

No wonder they want to be rid of me.

Bangert: Hidden law mean goodbye to LBC growlers?, by Dave Bangert (Lafayette Journal & Courier)

And then one day, just like that, Greg Emig found out his Lafayette Brewing Co. wasn’t supposed to be filling 64-ounce growlers for carryout of Eighty-Five, Star City Lager or any of the other fresh beer produced at the brew pub on Main Street.

Last fall, word started getting around among the Brewers of Indiana Guild that there was a glitch in state law that forbids carryout of any alcohol under special liquor licenses set up in economic development zones.

And now, after years of being tucked away in Indiana Code, the law was being enforced by the state’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission ...

 ... The story started in October, about the time of Harvest Homecoming festival in the southern Indiana city of New Albany.

Profuse public thanks go to Senator Ron Alting and Representative Ed Clere for their diligent efforts to make necessary repairs to these and other strange statutory divergences. After all, the ATC doesn't write these laws; it merely enforces them.

The riverfront three-way permits referenced here obviously were not intended to be incompatible with small brewing in Indiana; it's all about the wording, and the likelihood is that the words will be fixed during the coming legislative session.

As always, stay tuned.

_

Meet the uKeg pressurized growler.

These growler innovators are scoring early and often on Kickstarter. I support innovation, although at the same time, I can't help feeling that if one uses the conventional growler as intended -- by transporting it to a safe spot for draining in one joyful sitting -- home draft systems are a bit superfluous.

But the market will decide. Kudos to the inventors, and thanks to BC for the link.

The uKeg Pressurized Growler for Fresh Beer, by GrowlerWerks

Our mission at GrowlerWerks is to make a growler that works. One that doesn’t let air into your beer, maintains perfect carbonation from the first pour to the last, and keeps beer cold for hours – all in a product you’ll love showing off at your friend’s next BBQ. GrowlerWerks was created by local Portlanders who love craft beer. We've drawn on a combined 47 years of engineering and product-design experience to make a better way to store beer, so it always taste exactly how the brewmaster intended.

Kentucky would like to discuss what it means to be a growler.

The Great Kentucky Growler Conspiracy came bubbling to the surface late last week, and understandably so, given the tendency of social media to function not unlike Plato's Allegory of the Cave, spitting out shadows vaguely representing substance without really getting at the universals (if any) behind the curtain.

Here's the tip: Kentucky officials threaten growler sales by sanitation.

804 KAR 11:040. Growlers.
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS 241.060 authorizes the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages. This administrative regulation allows a licensee that holds a retail malt beverage license to sell growlers.
LRC.KY.GOV

I elected to wait a couple of days to comment, in the assumption that someone with more time and patience would parse the legalese -- and the Hoperatives duly stepped forward.

Because this became a story for us relatively late on a Friday afternoon, we did not reach out to Trey Hieneman at the KY ABC. We’ll raise some of the issues we brought up here with him next week and see what he says. We’ll definitely report on that. This could be something that winds up being a disincentive for retailers to keep and maintain growler systems,. That would be a real hit to the growing craft beer movement in Kentucky. On the other hand, this proposal could just as easily be rules that legitimately protect public health and helps brewers by making sure their product is being poured in a sanitary fashion. The story here doesn’t appear to be that these rules are good or bad. It seems to be that this is unclear. The good news is, there’s time to work that out.

In this instance, as in like occurrences (health departments everywhere smelling the do-re-mi and eagerly seeking regulatory territory to demarcate), it is worth considering the point when administrative shortcuts conflict with statute. At any rate, thanks to Carla and Tom for their balanced view; I look forward to the follow-up.

Allan's beer pusher in Moscow, Part One ... the plastic bottles.

From Moscow, my old buddy Allan Gamborg writes:

In my local market, a guy has set up a booth selling beers from about 20 different microbreweries from Moscow, and the towns around Moscow. He sells both bottles and on tap in 1 liter plastic bottles filled on the spot. Around 6 pm there is always a line of men after work. He also sells dried fish. Wonderful place. Beer is not so good though, at least not to my taste. For some reason, most of the beer is pale ale or stout. Well. I'll make some better photos next time I'm there if you want some inspiration on how to run your business.

PS – It probably cannot match the place we visited out of town, in 1999, on the way home from my dacha. Not much can.

He's referring to this.

It was the quintessential roadside beer stand, the mysterious local brewery’s de facto open-air tap room, nestled under the welcomed shade of trees in a farmyard littered with puddles, chicken droppings and fish bones, where a lady poured beer from a rigged faucet attached to a single keg, minus the needless expense of extras like refrigeration or television advertising.

At her disposal were six mugs, a basin of well water for rinsing them, and a bowl of rubles for making change. A half-liter of draft beer cost 25 cents, and the origin of the bones was revealed when I offered her a 20-ruble banknote for two beers, and in lieu of coins, she offered two small, leathery smoked fish in return.

I've actually been working on an updated version of this tale of Americans and Danes in Russia back in '99, and am considering publishing it at LouisvilleBeer.com as a multi-part Potable Curmudgeon column. But before that ... what is it about fish and beer in Russia, anyway?

Circle K auditions the PEGAS growler filler.

Two Circle K locations in Louisville recently began experimenting with local craft beer growler filling stations. It is said to be a test. The growlers are filled with the use of gizmos from these folks: PEGAS draft beer equipment. It's a Russian company, interestingly enough.

Growler fill stations like this one are not legal in the state of Indiana. A bill was introduced during this year's legislative session to create a class of permit allowing package stores to fill growlers; although I'm not positive, I think the bill did not emerge from committee.

"A Winter Storm Message from NABC's Founder."

Yeah, whatever; we'll all be dead by Tuesday, frozen and snowed into oblivion. Shakespeare's oft-quoted line, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," turns out to have been inaccurate, given that there were no weather forecasters in the playwright's time.

He'd have changed his tune, and consumed a few ales. That's what I'm saying.

Super Bowl Sunday at Bank Street Brewhouse: Asian Chicken Wings and to-go growlers.

Straight up, and as a prelude to what follows, kindly note that in the purest and most objective of senses, I believe that whenever Bank Street Brewhouse's Chef Josh Lehman has his Asian Chicken Wings on the menu, BSB is the place to go for wings -- in all of Kentuckiana.

Chef Josh has revealed that for the Super Bowl on February 6th, the BSB kitchen will be preparing Asian Chicken Wings for consumption both in-house, and carry-out. Not only that, but there'll be special Super Bowl pricing.

Your first dozen wings purchased on Super Bowl Sunday cost $9; nine is the total Super Bowl wins between the two teams, with the Green Bay Packers winning three, and the Pittsburgh Steelers six.

Each additional wing (after 12) will cost .45 cents apiece, this being Super Bowl XLV.

You must purchase the first dozen before the individual .45 cent wings can be purchased, and you are highly encouraged to call ahead for orders larger than two dozen.

If, like me, you're wondering why BSB's Asian Chicken Wings are so consistently good, here is Chef Josh's explanation.

The chicken wings are brined for twenty four hours to impart moisture and flavor, deep fried, and then tossed in a mixture of hot chili sauce, sweet chili sauce, soy, sesame oil, ginger, coriander and rice wine vinegar.

Furthermore, if you ask me, the quality of chicken that Chef Josh uses is far above the local standard, and his wings are invariably plump, juicy and delicious.

Also on Sunday, don't forget that NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse is the only establishment in Floyd, Clark and Harrison counties (and points beyond in Southern Indiana) permitted to sell carry-out beer. The growlers should be going out the door quickly, and alongside those wings ... heavens. I might even be able to tolerate the idiotic commercials.