Five Question With… Oklahoma Malt Beverage Association
Here is the latest in my series Five Questions With…
Today we have Brett Robinson, president of the Oklahoma Malt Beverage Association.
Brett Robinson, OMBA president
1. The Thirsty Beagle: A great deal of my readers probably haven’t heard of the Oklahoma Malt Beverage Association. Explain to the readers what it is you guys do.
Brett Robinson: OMBA is the leading trade association for Oklahoma beer distributors. We were founded in 1938, in the wake of the repeal of Prohibition, to advocate on behalf of small businesses, several of which are multi-generation and family-owned, that are integral parts of the three-tier system for beverage alcohol sale and distribution and to promote effective state-based regulation of beverage alcohol. We also invest an abundance of resources and effort in urging Oklahomans to drink responsibly by never drinking and driving and not consuming beer or any alcoholic beverages if under the legal age of 21.
2. TTB: On your Web site, it shows that Choc is a member of the organization; is that the only Oklahoma brewery that is a member? What are the advantages of a state brewery — or any brewery — joining OMBA?
BR: Yes, Choc is a member and we’re happy to have an award winning local brewery on our team. They are an affiliate member and we look forward to welcoming other great local brewers as members. The advantage is we spend a lot of time and resources advocating on behalf of and promoting the three-tier system, and as brewers they are the first tier. OMBA is an advocate for the entire beer industry.
3. TTB: Speaking of local breweries, do the guys like COOP, Marshall and Mustang use a distributor? It seems like they would be circumventing the three-tier system if they didn’t. Your thoughts?
BR: The short answer is yes, they do. In Oklahoma (and all other states as well), it’s the law for beer manufacturers to distribute their product to bars, restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and liquor stores only through a distributor. Since beverage alcohol is definitely not your typical consumer product, the three-tier system allows the state of Oklahoma to control alcoholic beverages through a regulatory system that prevents the abuses that led to Prohibition.
4. TTB: I mentioned your Web site — www.oklahomabeer.org — a couple questions ago; I thought there was a lot of interesting beer information there. Could you mention a few notable things people can find on the Web site?
BR: Our Web site is full of interesting facts regarding the Oklahoma beer industry, including “The Beer Guy,” a video documentary on the daily life of a beer distributor. It also contains economic facts regarding the beer industry, including the annual economic impact the industry has in Oklahoma, the number of Oklahomans employed in the industry and the amount of annual wages paid to those employees. The Web site also features easy beer ingredient recipes and our most recent public service radio advertisements regarding responsible beer and alcohol consumption.
5. TTB: The Super Bowl is coming up this weekend. Is this the busiest time of the year for beer distributors and retailers? Is there another time where the volume of beer purchased is greater?
BR: The Super Bowl is obviously a great time to enjoy malt beverage products responsibly, and it is a big weekend for us, however we actually do more volume around summer holidays and Christmas.
There you have it. Thanks to Brett for taking a little time out of his schedule to chat and give readers a look at another side of the state’s beer industry.
House Bill 2348 story
This is slated for publication in Thursday’s edition of The Oklahoman. Because you’re a dedicated beer fan and visitor to this blog, you get it first!
Home brewing bill passes committee
BY MICHAEL MCNUTT
Capitol Bureau
mmcnutt@opubco.com
Oklahomans would be able to legally brew beer for their own use if a measure that passed a House committee Wednesday becomes law.
It’s legal for Oklahomans to make wine and cider, but state law excludes beer brewing, said Rep. Colby Schwartz, author of House Bill 2348. Many brew beer for their own use, to serve guests and to enter beer-making competitions.
The prohibition is rarely if ever enforced, said Schwartz, R-Yukon. State liquor agents struggle to enforce liquor laws at commercial establishments and they don’t want to go to people’s homes to check for brewing operations.
Anyone caught brewing beer at home could face a fine up to $5,000, according to existing state law.
The bill was approved 12-1 by the House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee and now heads to the full House for consideration. It would allow the brewing of up to 200 gallons of beer a year, the same limit for wine and cider. That’s about 80 cases of beer.
Gary Shellman, a member of the American Home Brewers Association, said most home-brewed beer is below the alcoholic content of wines and ciders made at home.
“It’s a great hobby,” said Shellman, of Tuttle.
About 750,000 across the country are home brewers, he said. It’s estimated as many as 8,000 are home brewers in the state, he said.
People who make wine or cider are required to get a license from the sate’s liquor agency. Home brewers, if HB 2348 would become law, would also have to get a license.
Update: Homebrew measure passes committee
Earlier today I told you of a homebrew measure being taken up by a committee at the state Capitol. Thanks to Capitol Bureau reporter Michael McNutt, I can report that House Bill 2348 passed the committee by a 12-1 vote and is now scheduled to go to the full House for consideration.
What HB2348 would do would be to legalize homebrewing in Oklahoma. Apparently, making wine or cider at home in Oklahoma has been legal, but brewing beer at home is not. The offense of brewing beer at home is punishable by a fine, but according to experts, it is generally not enforced by the state’s alcoholic beverage regulators. After all, how could they find offenders? Secret beer police? Anyway, HB2348 would make it legal to homebrew up to 200 gallons of beer a year for personal use.
McNutt will have more information and reaction on this issue in Thursday’s edition of The Oklahoman, and I’ll post his story here as well as soon as I can.
Breaking beer news!
It’s not very often I get breaking Oklahoma beer news, but we’ve got it today folks! A House committee at the state Capitol today is set to take up a measure on homebrewing. Word is the committee will approve a measure that would allow Oklahomans to produce up to 200 gallons of beer each year at their home. Stay tuned to The Thirsty Beagle for the latest on this issue.
Steer away from the grocery store, young man
The grocery store has its time and its place. Buying meat? You got it. Stocking up on tortilla chips? No doubt. Securing the peppers and tomatoes necessary to make my not-quite-yet-world-famous homemade salsa? You bet! Buying beer? Whoa there, slugger. Let’s get one thing straight here: when it comes time to stock your “Important Football Game” party with beer, you’ve got no business heading into the Piggly Wiggly. I don’t care that they’ve got some kind of fancy display set up. Stay away! Be sure to visit your local liquor store prior to game day — since that’s a Sunday — and pick up some good stuff. What will The Thirsty Beagle be drinking, you ask? Considering I’ll be celebrating the “Important Football Game” at the home of a die-hard New Orleans Saints fan and likely enjoying some fine, spicy Cajun offerings, I’m thinking a couple or three bottles of Sundown Wheat will do the trick. Yes, I know Sundown Wheat only comes in 22 oz. bottles. I’ll be sharing, so don’t worry about me.
Meanwhile, in other beer news…
-Here’s a video breakdown of Choc’s Basement Batch.
-Bier Magazine posted its February Bier Garden Girl of the month.
-Mustang Brewing has revealed on Twitter that they plan to announce a brewery location this month.
-COOP recently put its 2010 batch of Oak Aged Imperial Stout into casks. Proof available here.
Time to talk about the football game of significant importance
Hello, I’m back. What, you didn’t even know I was gone? Damn you. Seriously, I took a week-long break from blog posting just now due to what I’ve decided to call Winter Storm of Death: Early 2010 Edition. Sucks to be an editor having to singlehandedly put out the newspaper. (No disrespect to any other editors here at The Oklahoman.) Anyway, it’s high time I get some blog posts up on this here blog. So why not get going with an event that is near and dear to the heart of any man who likes beer and sports: the Super Bowl. Can I say Super Bowl in a blog? Do I need to write “the big game,” or some other such nonsense? Who knows.
Fact is, the game of professional football that is bigger than all others is coming up Sunday. Up until about two hours ago, I was 100 percent behind the Colts. Living first in Toronto and then here in Oklahoma, I’ve never had an NFL team to call my own. Some people in Toronto back the Bills; here in Oklahoma, it’s the Cowboys, and to a lesser extent, the Chiefs. I’ve never jumped on any of those bandwagons. But somewhere along the way, I started building an allegiance to the Colts. The Colts have nice, sharp uniforms. They’ve always seemed to be a clean-cut bunch of guys. They’ve got the best quarterback maybe in the history of the game. And my brother lived in Indiana for a few years. What other reasons did I need? Right now, I still like the Colts, and wouldn’t be upset if they won. But you know what? I wouldn’t be upset if the Saints won, either. Why? Because of what I just saw on Outside the Lines.
I’m on the treadmill on my lunch break this afternoon when Outside the Lines comes on ESPN. If you thought it would be hard to get a little misty on a treadmill during your work lunch break, then you didn’t see the piece they did on the connection the Saints have with the city of New Orleans. Now I understand that is probably the 200,000th time someone has said or typed something to the effect of “the connection the Saints have with the city of New Orleans,” but this thing really hit home. Maybe the first good thing that happened for the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was the Saints playing a football game at the Superdome. As was pointed out in the OTL piece, the people in New Orleans love that city. They’ve elected to live there when they had nothing and could have gone anywhere else and had nothing. They stayed — or came back — because they love the city. What else do they love? The Saints. The Saints winning would be less like your favorite team winning, and more like your brother winning. I know it all sounds cozy, but do yourself a favor and find the OTL piece. I tried to find it online just now, but perhaps it’s too early to show up online. Either way, if you watch that and don’t feel at least the slightest twinge pulling you toward the Saints side, then you sir are a cold, heartless, no-account so-and-so. Or something like that.
Meanwhile, since the football game of a great deal of importance is so closely tied with beer, I’ll be offering up additional blog posts this week to get you ready. Cheers!
Beer news: Jan. 26
Here is what’s going on in the world of beer:
-Mustang Brewing will be at Old Chicago in Edmond from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to help the restaurant kick off its World Beer Tour of 2010.
-A book release launch party is scheduled for Feb. 4. I won’t go into details about that, other than to say that COOP’s Horny Toad is in the running to be the drink special of the party. You can vote here.
-Some guys in New Zealand came under fire after they placed a help wanted ad looking for a “midget” or “large-chested woman” to fetch beer for them at a rugby match. I’m not making this up.
-Let’s all celebrate the 75th anniversary of the beer can. Don’t celebrate too hard.
-A Burger King franchise in Miami will start selling beer, a first for the chain. I like the beer part, but I think I’ll stick with my Cattle Tracks burgers, thank you very much.
-Ah, the power of beer. A Haitian man was pulled from the rubble after 11 days. How did he survive for so long? Cookies and beer. Seriously.
Belgian beer shortage? Noooooooo!!!
There’s a report hitting the Interweb today that labor strife at Belgian breweries is causing the supply of Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe to literally run dry. AB-InBev is threatening to lay off up to 800 beer employees in Europe, about a third in Belgium, despite posting a third-quarter profit of $1.55 billion. Needless to say, the Belgians are none to enthused. So what are the beer workers doing? They’re blocking beer from leaving breweries, blocking ingredients from getting in and even holding their supervisors hostage. (Read the details here. Watch a video here.) The lesson: Don’t mess with Belgian beer. I think those are words we all can live by.
Local beer news: Jan. 20
Here are some news and notes from the local beer scene:
-Mustang Brewing Co. is having a beer night from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight at Old Chicago, I-240 and Pennsylvania.
-The Tulsa McNellie’s is hosting a Haitian relief night from 5 to 10 p.m. Jan. 26. Half of proceeds will go to the relief effort.
-McNellie’s in Tulsa is also hosting a Mardi Gras beer dinner at 7 p.m. Feb. 2. RSVP by e-mailing muriel@mcnellies.com.
-TapWerks in Bricktown unveiled a nifty beer promotion this month: St. Practice Day. Beer specials on the 17th to get ready for St. Patrick’s Day. Keep that in mind on Feb. 17.
Video: Marshall bottles
Good Monday morning to you all. Here’s a pretty cool video showing how Tulsa’s Marshall Brewing Co. bottles its beer.
