No beer over 11.9% in Alberta

[boney]

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/calgary-blogs ... -beer-591/

"Social Responsibility" hits the privatized system in Alberta. All of the info doesn't appear to be out yet, but it already stinks of being unequivocally hypocritical.

Posts on RB and BA are already up discussing the topic as well.

[Torontoblue]

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/calgary-blogs ... -beer-591/

"Social Responsibility" hits the privatized system in Alberta. All of the info doesn't appear to be out yet, but it already stinks of being unequivocally hypocritical.

Posts on RB and BA are already up discussing the topic as well.

It says the AGLC will no longer accept new registration for beers over 11.9%; I wonder what happens to the beers already in the market that exceed this? They are already approved, registered and being sold. There will be a lot of angry agents, brewers and public if these have to be destroyed; and not at the cost to the AGLC.

This memo must have come out real late on Friday as I saw nothing on the system whilst I was working.

I guess this puts a hold on the Tactical Nuclear Penguin that was hitting the province then

[Cass]

Well that's pretty ridiculous. Shows a total ignorance of craft beer.

Maybe a Free Our Beer article to support a fellow province?

[Cass]

Here's a CBC article & radio story about the 11.9% issue in Alberta:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/ ... t-ban.html

[Cass]

OK, a quick story about this posted up on Free Our Beer, along with a couple other tidbits.

http://freeourbeer.org/?p=84

[Lackey]

Man oh man...just another example of beer getting no respect. Ignorant.

[Lackey]

...I'll never be able to wrap my head around why these folks, who's job it is to regulate a product like alcohol, have abosoltely no interest in it. Or aren't mandated to learn a little bit about it.

[Belgian]

People are not guzzling those rare & special 12+ beers. They are SHARING them, or having just one (max two.) This new regulation does not correctly anticipate behavior, and fails to justify itself with facts.

Alberta may as well ban fortified wines, since those can exceed 20%. Why are Port and Sherry getting a free pass, they are sippers just like DFH 120min.

[Derek]

Alberta may as well ban fortified wines, since those can exceed 20%. Why are Port and Sherry getting a free pass, they are sippers just like DFH 120min.

That's a good point... I thought Canadian Sherry was meant to be drank from a brown paper bag in a back alley!

(It's unfortunate that those specialty brews never seem to be under $8 for a 750mL bottle).

[GregClow]

Maybe it's just damage control, but according to a statement released by the AGLC last week, this seems to have more to do with money (i.e. taxes) rather than "social responsibility".

Take note of the part that I've highlighted:

High-Alcohol Beer Restrictions
- December 2, 2010

Edmonton... The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission advised affected Alberta liquor agents November 26th that there would be no further registration or receipt into inventory of beer products (both import and domestic) with alcohol contents greater than 11.9 per cent until a policy is developed that addresses how these products are handled. The federal government uses 11.9 per cent as the cut–off point at which a beer becomes, for taxation purposes, an "imitation spirit."

The decision was prompted by a request to the AGLC to register two new beer products with alcohol contents of 18.2 per cent and 32 per cent. As these alcohol content levels considerably exceed 11.9 per cent, the Board directed AGLC management to study how other jurisdictions handle these products, who consumes these products, to consult with industry and stakeholders and to make subsequent policy recommendations.

The current inventory of two high-alcohol beers (both around 12 per cent) will remain available until depleted. There are approximately 1,400 beer products available in Alberta.

I'm assuming the "new beer products with alcohol contents of 18.2 per cent and 32 per cent" were BrewDog beers, as Sid mentioned TNP earlier in the thread. And this statement also answers his question about what will be done with the products already in the system.

[Cass]

What's funny (and certainly demonstrates the ignorance) is could anyone imagine actually binge-drinking those BrewDog beers???!!! I could hardly have more than an ounce.

[boney]

I got pretty much the same form letter from the AGLC that Greg got. Form my understanding, the 2 beers in question are indeed Tactile Nuclear Penguin and Tokyo*.

The one difference in the letter I got was that the AGLC stated that those two beers were targeted becasue they considerably exceed the alcohol content of beers currently in the market place. That argument may hold for TNP (and if so, so what?) but that is certainly not the case for Tokyo*, as Mikkeller Black Islay and Mikkeller Big Worst are both available and come in at 17.5%.

True, the 11.9% tax limit is now nationally mandated, but I wonder if there is some kind fo "social responsibility" freak out going on specifically realted to both TNP and BrewDog's reputation for being "extreme" brewers. It's pretty shitty that BrewDog may have been unfairly targeted for essentially 1 beer and that the ripple effect is touching all beers over 11.9%.

I wonder if the Jewbelation Vertical gift pack that was supposed to hit Alberta was submitted to the AGLC before this whole mess.

[Torontoblue]

I wonder if the Jewbelation Vertical gift pack that was supposed to hit Alberta was submitted to the AGLC before this whole mess.

Jew-Belation 14 is definitely still coming in as the registration was done before this mess hit the fan. The AGLC tried to stop the shipment, but it is already en-route and the agency stood their ground and won that little battle.

[Derek]

While I agree that 'freeze-distillation' can produce a product that may be more similiar to Whiskey than beer, I wonder how they decided to draw the line at 11.9%?

Aventinus Eisbock is 12%, but clearly not an 'imitation spirit':
http://www.schneider-weisse.de/index.ph ... en.eisbock

It looks like beer & tastes like beer... I'd call it beer!

[Yello to Mello]

I like my spirits with 40% alcohol and above!