This just in from the  California Small Brewers Association. . They’re holding a press conference Tuesday (Sept. 9, 2008) at Rubicon Brewing Co., 2004 Capitol Ave. in Sacramento to protest AB 1245 and urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to veto the bill.  Their statement’s self-explainatory. It would let brewers spend a lot more money on gifts and doodads to retailers flogging their beer. Of course who has money to do that? A-B, not your local brewer.
What we can do is send an email to Arnold urging him to abandon his Republican roots for an instance and shoot the damn thing down — guvanator style.

———————————————————————-
WHY:              A little known “swag” bill has been ushered to the Governor’s desk over the objection of local and small brewers in California.

The bill, AB 1245, would significantly increase the amount of marketing dollars Anheuser-Busch wants to spend courting new drinkers.  Promoting an increase of 1200% in direct marketing swag the largest beer manufacturer in the U.S. wants to further exploit its marketing clout to the detriment of smaller brewers.

“The real loser in the AB marketing game will be the consumer who will likely see reduced choices at their local market,” said Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Small Brewers Association.

WHO:             Glynn Phillips, owner, Rubicon Brewing Company, Sacramento
Susan Little, owner, St. Stan Brewery, Modesto
Tom McCormick, executive director, California Small Brewers Association

To email Arnold,  go here: http://govnews.ca.gov/govmail/webmail.php .

To call his office, dial 916-445-2841

The new issue (July-August) of Draft magazine has some interesting quotes from Sam Calagione, of Dogfish Head and Jim Koch of Boston Beer Co,. (Sam Adams) about beer and the drinking age

Q: Both of you have kids. How do you intend on introducing them to beer?

SAM: I’ve homebrewed with my kids once, and I’ll probably do it again… I wouldn’t guess it’s going to be in the next couple years, but I think when my kids are teenagers, at our dinner table, I’m going to show them that beer is a part of a great meal in small volumes to start with. If the government wants to come after me for doing that in my house, so be it.

JIM: My kids have had beer whenever they wanted. My dad was a brewmaster so I grew up around beer. He had a rule that we could have beer if we wanted; we just had to drink it with him. And I actually have two older kids who are now 29 and 27. I had the same rules with them, and when they went off to college, I never worried about it. They had seen people sort of drunk, and if you’re a 15-year-old and you see people drunk, it is not an appealing state. There’s nothing romantic about it. It’s like, ‘That’s what being drunk is? I don’t want to do that.’ Drinking too much never had any appeal, and they were always educated: one beer an hour, stick to the beer, never drink the punch, count your cups, go home when people start doing shots. You’re going to be fine then, but those are the rules.