Even though the age old rule has been no religion or politics talk at the bar, the brew blogs have been afire of late about how politicians are effecting our beer. I’m hoping it’s not all related to that weird tea bagging phenomona a few months back. We don’t need people dumping beer or hops into the Potomac please.
Beer Advocate dropped a link on their feed earlier with the Brewers’ Association press release. Apparently the Senate Finance Committee is looking to increase the excise tax on beer of 4.5% abv and then imposing higher tax rates on more alcoholic beers. Craft beer is about to get even more expensive even after the ingredient prices went up last year. Of course being a DC resident still without representation means many readers of this blog will just have to hope the rest of the beer drinking world can convince the wine-sipping politicos that this is not a good idea. I say we tax haircuts and escorts.
On a lighter note City Paper reviews some other stupid things politicians have put on the books related to beer:
Stupid Beer Laws… – Young & Hungry – Washington City Paper. Joey Redner, owner of Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Florida, has compiled a list of what, in his opinion, are the dumbest beer laws in America. Luckily, DC and its neighbors escaped the list. But there’s a certain amount of schadenfreude that comes from seeing what our less fortunate countrymen have to deal with when it comes to having a malt beverage.
Tags: beer advocate, city paper, politics, taxes
