View Full Version : Homebrewing Beer Illegal in Oklahoma



kd5ili
11-20-2009, 09:41 PM
I had no clue that this was so until I read this article.

Why is it illegal to home-brew beer in Oklahoma? - KFOR (http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-special-reports-home-brew-beer-story,0,554702.story)

So you can make wine in your garage, but not beer. Very odd...

-Chris-

HVAC Instructor
11-21-2009, 06:24 AM
"But the words 'or of beer' are missing," Shellman says. "Why not beer? George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were home brewers."

Shellman has called legislators about changing the law, but says the response isn't promising.

"They'll just simply say, 'In olden times, Jesus drank wine. Jesus didn't drink beer'."


Is this a great conservative state or what? :LolLolLol

decepticobra
11-21-2009, 06:50 AM
I had no clue that this was so until I read this article.

Why is it illegal to home-brew beer in Oklahoma? - KFOR (http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-special-reports-home-brew-beer-story,0,554702.story)

So you can make wine in your garage, but not beer. Very odd...

-Chris-

welcome to Oddklahoma

PennyQuilts
11-21-2009, 06:54 AM
I haven't done the research but where does it say you can't home brew beer?

All the article said was that they couldn't pass a law against wine brewing. Doesn't say anything about beer.

Guess I need to look it up.

bluedogok
11-21-2009, 07:10 AM
Is this a great conservative state or what? :LolLolLol
It isn't just Oklahoma, ALL states have some odd liquor laws, I think Texas has more oddball ones than Oklahoma. You have the "dry areas" situation and then in Dallas (and its burbs) you have the wet/dry areas are by voting precinct. That is why you have 8 liquor stores clustered together like you do on Greenville just south of Royal Lane. When I was working at Fort Polk, (Leesville, Louisiana) all the bars closed at Midnight on Saturday night, the convenience stores had to padlock the beer wine coolers and put brown paper up on the doors so you couldn't "see" the beer/wine. There was a 24 hour frozen drink stand that was closed from midnight to midnight on Sunday. Massachusetts still has the "package stores" laws, so no alcohol in Whole Foods stores. In fact according the linked story home brewing wasn't legal in the US until 1978, I know it wasn't legal in Texas until the early 90's and brew pubs were not legal until that time either, in fact the Bricktown Brewery was opened in OKC before it was legal to have a similar brew pub business in Texas.


That law dates back to 1959 and was never amended when home brewing was legalized on the federal level in 1978. "I think there's a lot of people that would like to see us make everything uniform, so it doesn't matter what you're doing. They all fall under the same parameters," Morgan says. "'Well I can make wine, but I can't make beer', that really just doesn't make a lot of sense."

Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi are the only states that have yet to make home brewing beer legal.
Seems like it's one of things they have just never done anything about.

HVAC Instructor
11-21-2009, 07:12 AM
It isn't just Oklahoma, ALL states have some odd liquor laws, I think Texas has more oddball ones than Oklahoma. You have the "dry areas" situation and then in Dallas (and its burbs) you have the wet/dry areas are by voting precinct. That is why you have 8 liquor stores clustered together like you do on Greenville just south of Royal Lane. When I was working at Fort Polk, (Leesville, Louisiana) all the bars closed at Midnight on Saturday night, the convenience stores had to padlock the beer wine coolers and put brown paper up on the doors so you couldn't "see" the beer/wine. There was a 24 hour frozen drink stand that was closed from midnight to midnight on Sunday. Massachusetts still has the "package stores" laws, so no alcohol in Whole Foods stores. In fact according the linked story home brewing wasn't legal in the US until 1978, I know it wasn't legal in Texas until the early 90's and brew pubs were not legal until that time either, in fact the Bricktown Brewery was opened in OKC before it was legal to have a similar brew pub business in Texas.



Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi are the only states that have yet to make home brewing beer legal.[/url]
Seems like it's one of things they have just never done anything about.

True, but what political philosophy is the common thread in these ridiculous laws? Liberalism, or conservatism?

gmwise
11-21-2009, 07:14 AM
I think federal law supersedes state,,,right?

HVAC Instructor
11-21-2009, 07:16 AM
I think federal law supersedes state,,,right?

I don't know. The feds are moving to decriminalize marijuana, for example, but Oklahoma will still lock you up for years for simple posession I bet.

gmwise
11-21-2009, 07:23 AM
Damn rebellious province!!
Do you remember the good ole days when the Emperor would dispatch Roman legions to put down rebellion?

lol

bluedogok
11-21-2009, 07:26 AM
True, but what political philosophy is the common thread in these ridiculous laws? Liberalism, or conservatism?
Like I said before, all states have some screwy liquor laws and I don't think that Massachusetts can be viewed in any way as a "conservative state". I know that you could buy home brew supplies in OKC/Tulsa before you could in Dallas, in fact in Texas some of the jurisdictions enforced the ban on home brew supplies just like some did on "sexual devices" that was never an issue in Oklahoma.

Personally, I think the majority of states need to clear the books and start over writing laws, there are so many antiquated and out of date laws that serve no real purpose anymore, plus there seems to be so many in conflict with each other. Laws written to serve the "moral purpose" of 100 years ago really have no place in today's society. Of course the other problem would be how to keep the special interests from actually writing most of the legislation. I feel that the number of actual laws at the state and federal should be as minimal as possible.

Luke
11-21-2009, 07:28 AM
Government knows best.

HVAC Instructor
11-21-2009, 08:52 AM
Like I said before, all states have some screwy liquor laws and I don't think that Massachusetts can be viewed in any way as a "conservative state".
True again, at least in modern Massachusetts. But wasn't New England once a Puritan conservative hotbed in early America? I do not know, but I would think it safe to wager, that at the time of the Massachusetts package store laws inception, they might just have been considered conservative. My point here is that prohibition type laws that have slipped through the cracks over the years originated from the conservative political philosophy.

PennyQuilts
11-21-2009, 09:22 AM
I think federal law supersedes state,,,right?

Right, but the states are the ones making the laws on booze.

gmwise
11-21-2009, 11:23 AM
I dont care I love to brew my own beer.
I have a tiny portion of German in me that wants to brew...lol

bluedogok
11-21-2009, 11:34 AM
True again, at least in modern Massachusetts. But wasn't New England once a Puritan conservative hotbed in early America? I do not know, but I would think it safe to wager, that at the time of the Massachusetts package store laws inception, they might just have been considered conservative. My point here is that prohibition type laws that have slipped through the cracks over the years originated from the conservative political philosophy.
Most current liquor laws were written and implemented in the repeal of prohibition and modern "conservatism" and "liberalism" were not the political theories of that era. The current Republican and Democrat parties of this day bears little resemblance to those parties of that era. In fact, Oklahoma was probably a much more liberal state in that day, in fact there was much more religious influence on both parties back then and it was just an accepted practice that led to things like "Blue Laws" and influenced the liquor laws as well. In fact most say that states laws are due modernization and are "antiquated" due to the time at which more were written. I think the screwy liquor laws has pretty much nothing to do with modern conservatism, now the lack of modernization does.

PennyQuilts
11-21-2009, 11:48 AM
I dont care I love to brew my own beer.
I have a tiny portion of German in me that wants to brew...lol

And I've got a little German in me that makes me want to drink!

HVAC Instructor
11-21-2009, 11:49 AM
Most current liquor laws were written and implemented in the repeal of prohibition and modern "conservatism" and "liberalism" were not the political theories of that era. The current Republican and Democrat parties of this day bears little resemblance to those parties of that era. In fact, Oklahoma was probably a much more liberal state in that day, in fact there was much more religious influence on both parties back then and it was just an accepted practice that led to things like "Blue Laws" and influenced the liquor laws as well. In fact most say that states laws are due modernization and are "antiquated" due to the time at which more were written. I think the screwy liquor laws has pretty much nothing to do with modern conservatism, now the lack of modernization does.

That's logical. Although there are both conservative Democrats as well as conservative Republicans. I agree on the modern liberals and conservatives having little resemblance to the past era, especially the further one looks back. Conservatism tends toward restrictive, religious backed law, and I think it pretty much always has, in that it desires to "conserve" the past, if you will. Perhaps modern conservatism has influence in allowing some of the antiquated laws to still stand. Certainly religious influence was largely behind these "blue" laws, like banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays, and the majority of religious folk tend toward conservatism, although I realize there are some religious liberals; however, it is doubtful those religious liberals would want to conserve such laws.

gmwise
11-21-2009, 12:12 PM
And I've got a little German in me that makes me want to drink!

Naw its Irish..lol

Bunty
11-21-2009, 12:20 PM
I would certainly want to vote out any legislator who's excuse for keeping Oklahoma's beer brewing ban was because Jesus drank wine, rather than beer, whether he was joking, or not. At least the legislator didn't refer to wine as grape juice.

Other odd Oklahoma laws, such as requiring everyone to observe the day of Sabbath, unless you're a grave digger and banning sales of cars on Sundays. I still don't understand why it was felt so important to single out cars like that.

kd5ili
11-21-2009, 12:30 PM
You gotta love a state that gives the police the authority to pull you over and ticket you if they see you driving without a seatbelt, but it's perfectly legal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.

-Chris-

PennyQuilts
11-21-2009, 01:23 PM
Naw its Irish..lol

I spect you're right!

bluedogok
11-21-2009, 06:03 PM
Other odd Oklahoma laws, such as requiring everyone to observe the day of Sabbath, unless you're a grave digger and banning sales of cars on Sundays. I still don't understand why it was felt so important to single out cars like that.
In Texas when they got rid of most of the blue laws, they modified the car dealer law to allow them to be open only one day a weekend, either Saturday or Sunday but not both.

RedDirt717
11-21-2009, 08:57 PM
Chill out people....it's also

- illegal for the owner of a bar to allow anyone inside to pretend to have sex with a buffalo.

- illegal to go Whaling.

They have home brew shops all over the place, lots of dumb laws on the books.

mugofbeer
11-21-2009, 10:51 PM
You gotta love a state that gives the police the authority to pull you over and ticket you if they see you driving without a seatbelt, but it's perfectly legal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.

-Chris-

Most other states have this same set of laws, its not just OK. Some of the liquor laws here are pretty silly, though.

hoya
11-22-2009, 04:58 AM
Chill out people....it's also

- illegal for the owner of a bar to allow anyone inside to pretend to have sex with a buffalo.

- illegal to go Whaling.


No, no it's not. A lot of those "dumb laws" you here about are nowhere to be found in the state statutes.

Although I guess it is illegal to go whaling, but that's because of federal law, not an Oklahoma law.

gmwise
11-22-2009, 07:57 AM
I think for now on any law that requires either jail/prison time to be served or a fine more then 500$ or whatever should require the legislator to published in newspapers HOW he thought of it, WHY he feels this needs to be illegal, and estimated of number of lawbreakers and how many will be jailed or fined.
That way we can get over these damn endless committees hearings and debates..lol

Like the legislator who got "the whaling law passed in Oklahoma"?!

bluedogok
11-22-2009, 10:15 AM
Every time I hear about these oddball laws it reminds of I book that I read as a kid named You Can't Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws (http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Peanuts-Church-Other-Little-Known/dp/0385121377). It is amazing how many stupid laws were passed in the past...it seems that many legislators throughout history were just as ignorant as the ones today.

RedDirt717
11-22-2009, 01:38 PM
No, no it's not. A lot of those "dumb laws" you here about are nowhere to be found in the state statutes.

Although I guess it is illegal to go whaling, but that's because of federal law, not an Oklahoma law.

37-537.2.

No owner, operator, partner, manager, or person having supervisory control of any establishment licensed to sell or serve intoxicating beverages shall permit any of the following on or about any commercial premises where intoxicating beverages are dispensed or consumed:

1. The performance by any person of acts, or simulated acts, of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, or any sexual acts which are otherwise prohibited by law;

2. The actual intentional touching or caressing or fondling by any person of the breasts, anus or genitals;

3. Any person on the licensed premises while such person is unclothed or in such attire, costume or clothing as to expose to view any portion of the areola of the female breast or any portion of the pubic hair, buttocks or genitals; or

4. Any person to perform acts of, or acts which simulate, sexual acts which are prohibited by law, or permit any person to use artificial devices or inanimate objects to depict any prohibited activities or permit the showing of films, still pictures, electronic reproductions or other visual reproductions depicting any of the prohibited activities described in this paragraph.

gmwise
11-22-2009, 04:19 PM
Thank you Reddirt!!
I think someone should give a sobriety test to that legislator.