The Reflector

Media Credit: Bud Sorey Gourmet beers with alcoholic content above the legal limit will not be found in local Starkville bars and restaurants with the bill's death.

Mississippi residents will once again be denied beer with an alcohol content above the current legal limit of 5 percent by volume as the gourmet beer bill died in the finance committee of the Mississippi Senate Tuesday.

A group of Mississippi residents created the grassroots effort Mississippians for Economic and Beverage Advancement in spring 2007, attempting to raise the legal limit of alcohol in beer from 5 percent to 17 percent.

MEBA co-founder Butch Bailey said the group was expecting the number to be amended to 8 percent.

"It would still be less than wine, which is 10 percent by volume," he said.

Bailey said the bill could have helped Mississippi economically.

"These products can cost two and a half times more than normal beer," he said. "Without raising any taxes at all because they cost so much more, [this] will raise the revenue."

Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia are currently the only three states to keep the alcoholic content of beer this low, he said.

MEBA co-founder Todd Parkman said the organization has been following grassroots Free the Hops effort started four years ago to raise the Alabama legal limit on beer alcohol content.

"It looks like they may actually get their legislation passed this year," he said. "Then, Mississippi would be surrounded by states that have this law."

Like Free the Hops, MEBA includes no lobbyists, but it has gained 1,300 to 1,500 Mississippian residents that want to see the laws updated, he said.

"These are prohibition-type laws, there's no way around it," he said. "We were the first state to accept prohibition and the last to get rid of it."

This prohibition of higher alcoholic content in beer may be hurting the only brewery in the state of Mississippi, Lazy Magnolia, Parkman said.

"Lazy Magnolia has been one of the great success stories of the state," he said. "They can't produce enough. You've got this great small business, but you're stifling what they can do."

Many gourmet beer drinkers purchase their favorites in other states and bring them back into Mississippi, he said.

Thad Edwards, MSU police officer and crime prevention coordinator, said though Mississippians may like to have these gourmet beers, they are still illegal to possess in the state.

"It is unlawful to possess alcohol, beer or wine or whiskey that was purchased from another state in the state of Mississippi," he said. "It is untaxed, therefore, it is prohibited."

If the legal alcohol limit was raised, Rick's Cafe owner Rick Welch said he would be able to offer more variety to customers.

An increase in alcohol content might not increase spending on alcohol but shift it to another beer, much like when Budweiser came out with Bud Light with Lime, Welch said.

"To me, a person is only going to spend so much on alcohol," he said. "If you increase the choices, they might spend a little more on another product."

Cowbells manager Jay Bradley said beers like Fat Tire, a Colorado-based ale, are just above the legal alcohol content in Mississippi so they cannot be served.

"A lot of beer my out-of-town friends talk about, we can't get here," he said. "I'd be down for [the bill passing] just to get that variety."

Robert Clark, president of one of Mississippi's major distributors, Northeast Mississippi Coca-Cola Bottling Company, refused comment on his company's thoughts about the bill.

"We ourselves are trying to determine ... how [this bill] affects ourselves and our business," he said.

Parkman said MEBA members plan to continue the effort until they get the legislation passed.

"We're not going away," he said.

Calls to Senate Finance Committee members Dean Kirby, Sidney Albritton, Eugene Clarke and David Baria were not returned by the time of publication.

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