Boycott Oregon?

[tavish2]

its only a matter of time until we invade oregon and turn it into south washington anyway

ah oregon..... washington's mexico.....

Washington - Oregon's Hat?

touche sir!

[CRBrewHound]

All that's true, but my point is that OLCC isn't the villain. Had the brewery not instigated this by asking for some clarification, things would have kept rocking on. Not even the AHA would have known it was illegal. Everyone thought it was legal. Now OLCC is assisting the AHA to help make sure its legal for next year.

My point is that the Oregon home brewing law was written to minimize the loss of beer tax revenue to the state without putting it in those words. The OLCC is the villian in the sense that they have the power to pull the liquor license of a brewery or state or county fair if they deem non-commercial home made beer judging illegal. Rather than denying an activity that has been common place in Oregon for many, many years, they could allow allow the status quo to continue as they wait for clarification and/or amendment of the law as it is clear that non-commercial home made beer judging falls under the spirit if not the word of the law. If the OLCC had some stones this is the position they would take and throw it back on the legislature as this has been going on for some time now and is causing no harm.

As long as te home brew is legally made, there should be no conflict. Beer competitions have been occurring for a long time in Oregon with the OLCC's consent. Why change things now because a brewery asked for clarification? Because the OLCC has the power to pull your liquor license, and for no other reason.

I am not sure I read it that way which I did read it. To me the law was written to prevent people from selling alcoholic beverages without a license. No some of the root cause of that is for certain tax related. However, too me they the home consumption clause was placed to prevent people from using loop-holes too sell beer. The beer is free however, admitence is $20 dollars kind of thing. Unless you word it specifically right then that is legal. I just don't think this was an issue they thought of when the law was originally errected.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

While there's some merit to the argument that they should use precedent and continue interpret the law in one way, in practice it's not a good idea. Suppose a contest judge imbibes to much and dies in a car accident. If the contest is technically illegal, that makes the venue criminally as well as civilly liable for any damages the judge caused. If it's illegal, the insurance company won't pay the damages the State Fair has been paying premiums for. A good lawyer could close the fair forever. And if the state knowingly doesn't enforce the law, that makes the State of Oregon vulnerable to prosecution.

It's more than just the technical illegality that's at issue.

All good points. It is a shame there is less and less personal responsibility and common sense out there. My wife has won several categories in our county fair for prepared foods - jellies, pickles, etc. Is it completely on appearance and aroma as the county fair judges are no longer allowed to taste the product that they give awards to for fear of food poisoning and liability to the fair. Sad but true.

By extending your logic above, the beer judges should not be drinking the beer at all as some attorney can find some jury that could possibly grant an award against the entity that hosts the event regardless what happens. It is because of this that I no longer host beer club meeting at my house and have very little interest in becoming a beer judge.

I am happy to brew at home and share my labors with friends on a personal basis, not through any organized group.

I volunteer at our community's Oktoberfest, and, surprise surprise, work on the beer committee. We have to deal with crap like this all the time.

A couple of years ago, I was playing an early morning round of golf in regular sandals, and slipped in the dewy grass and broke an ankle. I never once thought of suing the city (the owner of the course) for not requiring me to wear golf shoes. I could be living on Maui with you, now!

[bcmaui]

A couple of years ago, I was playing golf in regular sandals, and slipped in the dewy grass and broke an ankle.

There is a reason they call them "slippers".

[lunchbox]

If this type of shit happened to the founding fathers... some politicians would be picking tar covered feathers out of their asses on their way out of town. Man the fuck up Oregon!

[boobookittyfuk]

penis

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

This shit was going to happen some time, it just happened to fall in our laps right now. The law is badly written and not up to date with the current brewing culture in Oregon. It will get fixed soon. It really sucks in the mean time to have the homebrew clubs not allowing homebrew to be brought in, but it's not going to take all that long to fix. 6 months or so is not that long in the grand scheme of things and there's really nothing we can do in the mean time to fix it. Whatever, there are plenty of friend's houses and events where no one gives a shit if you bring homebrew. You'd basically have to call the cops on yourself and ask them to arrest you to have somehting bad happen.

It's probably nothing that hasn't been covered on this thread already, but a wrote a little article for Brewpublic on the situation which you can check out here: [url]http://brewpublic.com/beer-events/oregon-homebrew-currently-under-“house-arrest”-according-to-new-legal-interpretation/[/url]