Define Beer for the State of California

Here in the state of California on the political craft beer front comes this piece of news….

“Before the Governor for action, A.B. 1812 seeks to clarify that beer aged in empty wooden barrels previously used to contain wine or distilled spirits will continue to be defined as “beer” in order to protect the existing regulatory and licensure structure in California. The California Craft Brewers Association, the sponsor of this bill, sought this clarification due to concerns that current law creates ambiguity on how wooden barrel-aged craft beers are defined and categorized for purposes of regulation, distribution, retail sales and taxation.”

Seems obvious to me and many other craft beer geeks but you know politicians, they would have trouble finding a piece of their anatomy with two hands and a flashlight (one of my dad’s favorite political jokes). But seriously, there are so many tiny underwritten sections to state laws regarding beer that it can be frustrating that a little common sense can’t be applied and either have a fast track for fixing things or a way to just ignore it and not enforce it. Thankfully Governor Brown signed this so now we can move on to more legal tweaks to the twisted mess of beer laws in this country.