{"id":106920,"date":"2016-02-01T03:41:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T10:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-antiquated-homebrewing-law-may-be-freshened-up\/"},"modified":"2016-02-01T03:41:51","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T10:41:51","slug":"colorados-antiquated-homebrewing-law-may-be-freshened-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-antiquated-homebrewing-law-may-be-freshened-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s antiquated homebrewing law may be freshened up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kathy
Kathy Hands and Dwayne Jackson opened the Mancos Brewery Co. in fall 2014 as Dwayne Jackson sought to escape the boundaries set by a bigger brewery. He opened what he termed \u201ca true community public house\u201d offering beers brewed in small, 15-gallon batches in Mancos. The Colorado Legislature will consider a bill this session that liberalizes homebrewing, the starting step for many craft brewers like Jackson and Hands.<\/span>Sam Green\/The Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Before the craft-beer explosion, brewers were developing recipes at home.<\/p>\n

Dave Thibodeau, co-owner of Ska Brewing Co., found his desire to brew at 17 years old. What started as homebrew experimentation, became Ska, which opened in Durango in 1995.<\/p>\n

DeWayne Jackson, the brewer at Mancos Brewing Co., got his start homebrewing in Texas, before he would go on to work at Moab Brewery in Utah, and then on to Mancos.<\/p>\n

Little did these two brewers know that if they were homebrewing in Colorado, they were required to be the \u201chead of a family\u201d in order to produce their recipes at home, and only for \u201cfamily use.\u201d In fact, few homebrewers are aware of the antiquated Colorado law.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers began addressing the issue on Thursday, with a legislative fix that would eliminate \u201chead of a family,\u201d and replace the terminology with \u201cadult,\u201d meaning someone 21 years of age or older. \u201cFamily use\u201d would be replaced with \u201cpersonal use.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill, House Bill 1084, passed out of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee unanimously. It now heads to the House floor for debate, before it can move to the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can give you any number of scenarios where it\u2019s not appropriate in today\u2019s society to use head of family,\u201d said Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, who is sponsoring the legislation. \u201c\u2018Adult\u2019 just seems to be the more appropriate word to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Radziewicz, owner of Quirky Homebrew Supply in Northglenn, said homebrew beer is no different than beer purchased in a store, in terms of how it\u2019s used.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018family use\u2019 wording implies that it cannot leave a family\u2019s home, nor be used by anyone outside the family. What we\u2019re trying to make sure is you can take a six pack of homebrew to your friend\u2019s house and share a beer with them while having a burger and watching the football game,\u201d Radziewicz told lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau found the entire situation almost comical, wondering who even uses the term \u201chead of a family\u201d in today\u2019s age. He pointed out that under the current law, 21-year-old college students would have to fight for head-of-family status to brew at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell is a head of household?\u201d Thibodeau asked with a laugh. \u201cI just can\u2019t imagine someone actually getting in trouble for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ska Brewing has long supported the homebrew community. The brewery sold homebrew supplies for about four years, and hosts the Animas Alers Homebrew Club in Durango, a gathering of local homebrewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur roots are fully embedded in homebrewing, going back to the days before there was even a homebrewing shop in Colorado,\u201d Thibodeau said.<\/p>\n

Since those early days, homebrewing has gained popularity and acceptance, following the proliferation of the craft beer industry as a whole. The Boulder-based American Homebrewers Association represents about 46,000 members across the nation, including 7,000 in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Mancos Brewing Co. sees homebrewers walking through its doors regularly, with people constantly asking for advice, said Jackson. Having been a homebrewer himself, Jackson is happy to oblige.<\/p>\n

Similar to Ska, Mancos Brewing hosts the Mesa Verde Mashers Homebrew Club, a group of homebrewers that meet in Montezuma County. Calling themselves \u201camateur brewers,\u201d the group has even used Mancos Brewing\u2019s facilities to perfect their craft. Jackson has also passed along certain ingredients, like hops and yeast.<\/p>\n

In the end, he says the craft beer world is all connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a craftsman, and I\u2019m an independent entrepreneur,\u201d Jackson said, underscoring that his homebrew roots helped drive decisions, like leaving the larger Moab Brewery for the much smaller Mancos Brewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something more local, more homegrown,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI wanted to actually talk and meet and enjoy and watch the people live their lives out there drinking my beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Measure seeks to move homebrewing beyond the Ward Cleaver era<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[924,94,582,13,70],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-alcohol","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-craft-beer","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-news-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106920"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}