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Government intrusion into the private lives of citizens is not a new thing, but enough is enough.
For years, Oregonians have made and sampled home brews of beer and wine made by their fellow brewers.
Not anymore. According to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, tasting someone else’s home brew is against the law.
No, there hasn’t been a change in the law in question, only the interpretation.
ORS 471.403 forbids the production of alcoholic beverages by anyone not licensed by the OLCC. However, the law “does not apply to the making or keeping of naturally fermented wines and fruit juices or beer in the home, for home consumption and not for sale.”
Based on a new interpretation of “home consumption,” the OLCC is now saying that judged competitions, home-brewing club tasting nights, or even taking a home-made beer to the neighbor’s barbecue is now illegal.
The OLCC has declined to offer public comment on the change, but is passing the buck. On the agency’s official blog, a July 2 posting says that the new interpretation of the law came because of a recent analysis of the statute by the Oregon Department of Justice.
The Oregon State Fair, which has run a wine competition for the last 31 years, and a beer contest for the last 22 years, is cancelling their contests because of the new interpretation.
However, neither the Crook County nor Deschutes County fairs have cancelled their competitions. The Deschutes County Fair plans on continuing the competition unless specifically notified by the state not to do so, and according to Jody Roan at the Crook County Fairgrounds, “the category is not usually very large, but we do have a judge for that category this year.”
We could understand the OLCC’s involvement if there had been any public safety issues related to the drinking of home brews, but that has not been the case.
There are no reports of individuals becoming sick because of home brews, or of individuals driving drunk following club tastings. In fact, we can find no record of any problems at all associated with home-brewing.
A handful of home-brewers from around the state have formed the Oregon Home-brewers Alliance to lobby the OLCC and legislators to change the law.
According to Denny Conn, of Noti, Ore., one of the founding members of the group, the growing popularity of home-brewing has led to the repeal of antiquated liquor laws in other states. If either the Justice Department, or the OLCC had used any common sense, changing the law would not be necessary. Unfortunately, bureaucrats did what bureaucrats so often do. Instead of solving problems and dealing with real issues, they seem determined to perpetuate bureaucracy, causing more problems than they solve in the process. Consequently, their intrusion should come as no real surprise.
Oregon has more micro-breweries than any other state, and many of them began as home-brewers. The law needs to be changed as soon as possible, leaving home-brewers free to sample each other’s wares. In the meantime, we hope the OLCC will have enough sense to leave home-brewers well enough alone.
