First State Brewers Blog

I received the following email and thought I should pass them along! The damn Marxists in our government are raising the price of our beer!

Dear Fellow Delaware Homebrewers and Beer Enthusiasts,

As you may have read in the paper, once again, the Delaware legislature is working to make up budget shortfalls by targeting the usual suspects…..beer, wine and spirits. The Delaware General Assembly just passed a bill to raise the Excise Tax on beer by 50%, and comparable increases in wine and spirits. This bill goes before the Senate on Monday evening and then on to the Governor. As you also know, small brewers in this country our under tremendous pressure from historic volatility in the raw materials market. Iron Hill’s 2009 hop contracts will rise 300% and our grain contracts by 60%. As much as we hate to do it, these dramatic increases in costs have to be passed along to the consumer for all of us to remain viable business and for you guys to continue to enjoy our products. At the same time, our legislators have seen fit to add to the burden by adding a historic increase in the state’s excise tax. Delaware’s excise taxes on beer are already almost double the taxes we pay in all of our neighboring states. In the end, all of these costs are will ultimately result in consumers paying more for our products.

We are asking you to please take time this weekend to contact your representatives and let them know your feelings on higher taxes. Please visit:

http://legis.delaware.gov/Legislature.nsf?open

to locate your representative and e-mail them.

Thanks for your help,

Mark D. Edelson
Director of Brewery Operations
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
2502 West Sixth Street
Wilmington, DE 19805
Phone (302) 888-2739 X110
Fax (302) 652-4115
www.ironhillbrewery.com

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Delaware E-Action Alert

June 27, 2008 Dear Delaware Beer Activists and Homebrewers,Delaware small brewers need your help! Please read the following information provided by the small, independent breweries of Delaware:A proposal currently moving in the legislature would raise the state tax on beer almost 50%. The small brewers of Delaware are asking you TO CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR TODAY to ask him/her to oppose this unprecedented increase as an extremely harmful measure to the state’s small craft breweries.At this point, this proposal has not been formally drafted as legislation, but will be amended into an existing bill and voted on Monday, June 30. NOW IS THE TIME TO CALL YOUR SENATOR – CALLING IS THE QUICKEST, MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD AS TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! For contact information for your Senator, click here. You will find links to the Senate roster of members. Simply find your Senator and click on their link for contact information.Following are several suggested points to make to your elected representatives: Delaware has one of the most vibrant and varied craft brewing communities on the east coast. Delaware’s small breweries are good for the economy and very good for tourism. Thousands of visitors journey to the state every year to visit these breweries and experience their unique products where they are made. Small brewers are facing astronomical costs increases across the board – from malt and hops to energy and packaging materials - nearly 40% over last year. If a further tax burden is placed upon Delaware’s small breweries in this challenging economy it will surely put many of those small businesses at risk. A tax increase of this magnitude will deter start-up breweries from considering locating in Delaware, as it will affect existing breweries’ ability to expand, stalling job growth and possibly forcing Delaware breweries to relocate to states that have more competitive tax structures. The small, independent breweries of this state need their legislator’s support now more than ever. Thanks for supporting Delaware’s small breweries! Sincerely, Charlie Papazian President Brewers Association charlie@brewersassociation.org Gary Glass Director American Homebrewers Association gary@brewersassociation.org www.beertown.org

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 8:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.