California State Bill 1548 went into effect today, handing — as usual — another advantage to large beer companies and further eroding a level playing field for breweries in California. It was originally an even worse bill, but thankfully the California Small Brewers Association was successful in working with legislators and other interested parties to scale back some of the bill’s provisions. It passed without fanfare at the end of August and was quietly signed into law by the Governator, with our watchdog media all but completely silent, in and of itself a telltale sign of whose interests the bill will serve.

The law was originally pushed by Anheuser-Busch which tells you everything about who will benefit most from it. A-B argued that it leveled the playing field for them to compete with wineries and liquor manufacturers and that they plan to “conduct only small educational tastings about new beers.” Sure, and I’m Napoleon Bonaparte.

According to the article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

“It’s an opportunity for us to get consumers to sample some of our new products,” said Andrew Baldonado, western region vice president of government affairs for Anheuser-Busch. “The winter’s bourbon cask ale is a seasonal beer that we’re doing. The best way to introduce those new products to consumers is to be able to have them sample them.”

Of course, retailers with the right kind of license can and already have been conducting beer tastings under current law. The new law now allows manufacturers — you know, brewers — to sample the public on their beer directly beyond those few who visit their breweries, such as at bars and restaurants. It further permits “8 ounces per person a day and requires the beer to be served in a glass.” Tasting sessions cannot last more than an hour and there are also other limitations. The full text of the bill is available on one of my previous posts.

In a way, it feels weird to be against this bill because on its face it appears to make exposing people to beer much easier and in literally thousands more locations than under the former system. And I firmly believe that the only way to teach people what beer really is, meaning good beer, involves tasting them on it one on one. So this should be a good thing, at least on paper. The reason it’s not is because of who can afford to really take advantage of the new law. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out who can best afford to buy eight ounces of beer for a bar full of potential drinkers.

But A-B insists their “purpose” is “education, not intoxication.”

“It would never be an instance where we would be buying the house a round,” said Baldonado. “We would talk to consumers one at a time about whatever product it may be, whether it’s Budweiser or something else.”

Sure, and I’ll never invade Russia or sell Louisiana to the Americans. As the Chronicle article concludes, Glynn Phillips, of Rubicon Brewing, acknowledges the economic difficulty for small brewers to offer free beer. “A small guy like me, I can’t afford to do that,” Phillips said. “But bigger breweries can walk into a restaurant and sample an entire crowd.” Phillips also recently spearheaded the founding of the Northern California Brewers Guild to pool resources between small brewers north of the Bay Area. Such guilds are necessary precisely because the craft brewers don’t have the wherewithal that the large brewers do. And that’s why this law is not all it seems, because it will allow the big guys one more advantage over the small brewers.

One final note that’s almost funny. The Chronicle article contains a quote from Fred Jones, a lawyer with the neo-prohibitionist group, California Council on Alcohol Problems, a coalition of religious groups. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t like the law either, but for different reasons. Here’s what he has to say:

“It was jokingly referred to as the ‘Free Happy Hour’ bill (in the Capitol), so I think that gives you an image of what could happen,” Jones said. “What is the reason behind giving someone 8 ounces of beer free? One could argue that with wineries, each winery is different and every bottle is different depending on age or season. But we’re talking about beer here.”

Wow! Talk about wearing your naked ignorance on your sleeve. Every wine is different but all beer is the same? How stupid do you have to be about beer to think that? Or to say it out loud? Sheesh.