New Hampshire is another pit of vipers entirely, when it comes to beer laws. Or any of their alcohol laws, for that matter. I mean, this is a state that not only directly sells all spirits, but famously has liquor stores on the highways. Funny enough, I never thought this was odd... just a coy way of collecting highway toll revenue, and certainly not as strange as drive-through package stores found in the south. Never mind the places that give you a daiquiri as long as they don't put the straw in for you, but I digress. NH has beer and wine available in more places than MA seems to, thanks to MA instituting a low allotment of liquor licenses per town. Still, NH does find myriad more ways to be weirdly antiquated and restrictive.
Granted, the Granite State used to be worse. There was a 6% ABV limit on beers, which today is 14% (in the intermediary, it was at 12% until recently). A cap of any kind is unfortunate, but that's certainly better than before where the low limit seemed tailor-made to discourage experimentation and keep people on their piss-water pilsners and light lagers. Incidentally, I can't find anything about an ABV cap on wine. Just saying. On the sunnier side, NH has only recently started allowing beer sales at farmer's markets, so good on them there. Of course, a law allowing wine sales was passed a year or two sooner... but let's not get all sour (or fermented) grapes about it. Instead, let's turn to something you'd think would be innocuous, yet remains a big deal: beer labels.
Make no mistake about it, the mere act of seeing this label will turn your infant into an alcoholic! New Hampshire state law prohibits any reference to minors that may induce anyone under 21 to drink. You know... because it's a pictorial reference that's really going to push those teenagers over the edge. Now, NH is not alone in. Maine (which also has greater variety on the shelf that in NH) banned Ridgeway Brewing's Santa’s Butt Winter Porter for much the same reason... the sweet siren song of Ol' Saint Nick would seduce the innocent kiddles. Beer labels require both state and federal approval, so you can find stories like this all over the country... but you know what else you can find all over the country? Candy flavored vodka. Still, things in NH are getting slightly better. House Bill 1208 includes amendments such as "Prohibit[ing] the liquor commission from requiring federal label approval for New Hampshire beverages", but was further amended to prohibit advertising "targeting" under 21, which is clearly a matter of interpretation.
You might have noticed above that I off-handedly mentioned that Maine (and by implication, Massachusetts as well) has more variety on the shelves than New Hampshire. Why the hell is that, anyway? Overall prices are higher in surrounding states. Sales tax too, obviously (I've heard that NH label fees are higher than surrounding states because of the absence of certain taxes, but let's not turn this into economics class, mkay?). There's also no redemption program in NH, so there's no deposit paid on bottles and cans. And, as we said before, you can simply get beer in more places in NH as compared to Mass. The sad truth is that makes people jump over the border to buy cheap macrobrews in the Granite State, but not so for craft beer. NH is late in the game to craft, and has classically had limited distribution because there's been little demand. Luckily, selection seems to be improving as customers are becoming more educated and craving better beer (one concrete exception is the Shelton Brothers does not distribute to NH at all, causing a lack of exposure when it comes to Belgian beers).
But the problem goes deeper than just bad habits. Restrictive liquor laws, past or present, certainly can't help. As I've already said, NH has an ABV cap that was only recently raised. Recently, a tax increase was proposed that would have raised it by 10 cents per gallon sold off-premises. Of course, NH already has a fairly high excise tax rate on beer, especially compared to MA (but fairly close to Maine).
Governor Hassan has said she would veto this bill were it to pass, but it just goes to show that NH has some catching up to do in being friendly to the growing craft industry. Steps are being made in the right direction, like recent laws to make it easier for nanobreweries specifically to get up and running (making NH the first state to legally delineate nanos from other brewers) and the ability to sell pints of beer at breweries so long as "hot food" is provided (again... it seems a little unjust that bars which are open until 1am can close their kitchens at 10pm, yet a brewery has to follow special standards), but it takes time to completely change course... both for NH drinkers getting educated and starting to demand beers they didn't even know existed until recently, and for the lawmakers to make it easier for those beers to get into the hands of consumers.
Knowledge creates converts, people.
Woof. Between two blog posts, that was a rather long one... but there was a lot to cover and I really only scratched the surface. If I missed something, tell me about it! I can take it. Anyway, I promise to write something short next time. And fun. See you then!
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