Jan. 9, 2007
 
EDITORIAL: New Tasting Law: More Progress for Beer
 
Sacramento Bee
 
American beer has come a long way since industrial brewing took over the American market when Prohibition ended in 1933.
 
Before Prohibition began in 1920, Americans enjoyed a wide range of beers. After Prohibition, the American brewing industry got a worldwide reputation for beer that was cheap and consistent, but almost uniformly straw-colored and without character or body.
 
Today, Americans are enjoying a beer renaissance. California helped get it started, passing a law in 1983 allowing breweries to sell beer directly to customers without going through a distributor. Here and elsewhere, craft beers have made a comeback. Microbreweries and brew pubs have been reintroducing Americans to a wide variety of fresh, high quality, hand-crafted beers. Americans once again can get a range of brews from pale to dark, hoppy to malty.
 
And restaurant sales of beer have been increasing, despite declines in alcohol consumption. The National Restaurant Association has found that diners want premium-quality craft-brewed beers with their meals.
 
So now Big Beer, with stagnating beer sales, is fighting back. Macro-brew giants Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller supported a California law that took effect last Monday, allowing manufacturers and distributors to give free beer samples at restaurants and bars; that was banned in the past.
 
Some small brewers worry that the change might give the large industrial breweries an unfair advantage in marketing. They shouldn't fret. The law has strict limits: Beer tasting at a bar or restaurant cannot exceed 8 ounces per person per day; the sample must be served in a glass; and the beer manufacturer or wholesaler cannot offer more than six tastings a year at any given bar or restaurant.
 
Opponents of the new law simply dismissed the whole idea of tasting beer, as opposed to wine, saying "We're talking about beer here." That proves Americans still have a lot to learn about beer.
 
When people sample beers side by side, they have already shown willingness to pick quality brews. The beer Goliaths may believe the law will help them against the Davids running the local craft breweries, but that's unlikely. More likely, the law will force the giants to brew better beers. In a tasting setting, locally produced, hand-crafted beer served fresh can compete any day against characterless, mass-produced brewskis.
 
The new tasting law enhances competition and that is good, any way you pour it.
 
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