Free beer! New rules would let homebrewers share their creations
Rules that would allow homebrewers to offer samples of their beers at public events throughout Illinois are getting closer to fruition.
Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) said representatives from homebrewer groups and Illinois beer distributors have been meeting to discuss the matter and have come up with mutually agreeable points for such legislation.
According to Peter Rzeminski II of Oswego, who is a member of Plainfield Ale and Lager Enthusiasts and the Illinois Homebrewers Association, the homebrewers and the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois are trying to reach an agreement.
The Illinois Homebrewers Association is a group of 24 clubs and shops. Rzeminski and Richard Placko of Elgin, along with the St. Charles-based Silverado Homebrewing Club, have been working with Farnham’s office, various lob- bying groups and others with interest in the bill.
Attorneys also are helping, pro bono, to craft the language of the draft bill.
“The main drive is to allow homebrew samples to be given away to the public at festivals,” Rzeminski said.
The beer distributors’ executive committee voted earlier this year to back the IHA-written bill as long as it included certain provisions, he said.
Among the stipulations: Events hosting homebrewers would require a $25 permit issued through the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, Farnham said, and homebrew events open to the general public could not be held inside bars.
The issue of homebrew sampling came to a head last year.
In April 2012, Peoria International Beer Festival organizers were told by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission that because clubs’ brewing equipment was not regulated and their beer was not taxed, they could not share such brews at the festival.
A dozen brew clubs had been a feature for 19 years at the Peoria festival, which is a fund-raiser for the local Jaycees and charities.
Members of the Silverado Homebrew Club were set to provide free tastes of member-made beers at the Wheaton Ale Fest in August, but city officials, worried about the legality of the sampling, said no.
Silverado also could not give away samples at a fund-raiser in Elgin in September, as it had done in 2011.