High-Octane Beer Bill Update

By Bill Schneider, 3-27-09

SECOND UPDATE, March 27, 11:30 am. Yesterday, the Montana Senate voted 39-11 to pass HB 400. That was the second reading vote, with the third reading scheduled this afternoon, with the results likely to be similar. That means the bill goes to the Governor’s Office for signature. Tony Herbert, executive director of the Montana Brewers Association, said he has received no signs that the Governor won’t sign the bill. He also gave speical kudos to the bill’s main ball carrier, Represenative Deborah Kottel (D-Great Falls) and to Senator John Brueggeman (R-Polson) for carrying the bill on the Senate floor.

“This vote is a good indication that the legislature understands the value and importance of a vibrant brewery industry in Montana,” Herbert said. “Brewers are creative in their trade, and HB400 gives them the opportunity to expand in new areas. Like Debbie Kottel has said many times, ‘Montana has the potential to become the Napa Valley of Beer.’”

See following update and article for more details.

UPDATE: On Thursday, February 12, the Montana House of Representatives passed HB 400 83-17. “It was a very strong vote,” Tony Herbert, executive director of the Montana Brewer’s Association, told NewWest.Net, “and now the bill on its way to the Senate.”

Herbert cautioned that this was only a Second Reading vote, with the Third Reading vote schedule for today.

“It’s not so much a high-octane bill,” he said. “It’s more of traditional craft beer bill. It places the emphasis on the styles of beers brewers can make and the types retailers can sell. It isn’t about making stronger beer.”

Brewers can’t even make some recipes, he noted, without letting the beer ferment longer and increasing the alcohol content. “It’s about making a better, fuller-bodied products.”

If the bill passes Third Reading and goes to the Senate, it will probably go to the Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee, and Herbert encouraged beer fans to contact Senators on this committee.

The original article follows:

A bill to allow Montana brewers to produce and Montana retailers to sell high-octane beer has just cleared a major hurdle in the Montana Legislature.

Earlier today, the House Business and Labor Committee voted 14-4 to send HB 400, sponsored by Deborah Kottel (D-Great Falls), to the House floor for a full vote.

Currently, Montana state law prohibits the sale or manufacture of beer containing more than 7 percent alcohol (by volume), and the Montana Department of Revenue has recently started cracking down and raiding retailers selling beer brewed outside Montana that has higher than 7 percent alcohol content. HB 400 would allow retailers to sell beer and Montana’s rapidly growing brewing industry to manufacture beer that has up to 14 percent alcohol content.

“We support this bill,” Tony Herbert, recently hired as executive director of the Montana Brewer’s Association, told NewWest.Net (MBA), this morning. “It will allow our brewers to expand the portfolio of beers they can offer.”

It would also allow, he noted, retailers to sell high-octane product made by any brewer from outside the state.

During the hearing, The MBA supported an amendment offered by Representative Paul Beck (D-Red Lodge) to make sure the law did not apply to “flavored malt beverages,” Herbert added. “We want it to apply only to real beer.”

The committee approved Beck’s amendment.

Herbert said HB 400 faces a vote by the full House of Representatives on Thursday or Friday, “so call your local legislator right away.”

If so inclined, you can click here to find the phone number and email address of your local legislator.