It appears there is trouble brewing in the land of the oak aged beer. (yes, I intentionally used word play and nicknamed California the land of oak aged beer) In one of my favorite beer blogs out there J. discusses a proposed law changed that blurs the line of what a beer is and will make it harder for brewers who use used oak barrels to make their beer and possibly more expensive. To sum it up, the law is an attempt to slow the sales of alcopop to binge drinkers by taxing them like distilled spirits. The problem for oak aged beers is how the proposed law is written it requires the brewers to prove that they don't fall within the guidelines of this law. Basically, if a beer touches a barrel that contained a distilled spirit at some point it would fall into the guidelines as written. It would be a nightmare and as the blogger points out, how is a tax official an authority on what a "beer" is?
Read the article and tell me your thoughts. He is very opinionated so keep that in mind.
http://www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com/california-threatening-barrel-aged-beer/
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