North Carolina’s beer pong battle
A legislative battle currently is brewing that could determine whether North Carolina beer-makers will still be able to sell and market their own beer. The result could have long-lasting implications...
View ArticleAmerican Whiskey Trail tour, Day Four
Thirty years ago, most whiskey distilleries were lonely places — industrial factories in remote rural areas. For the most part, the proprietors of these places saw themselves as manufacturers, the...
View ArticleAmerican Whiskey Trail tour, Day Five
Don’t get me wrong — Jack Daniel’s is a very impressive company. Its sales growth over the past 40 years is mind-boggling. During the 1970 and 1980s, most American whiskeys saw their sales drop. They...
View ArticleApplying heightened scrutiny to protectionist alcohol laws
While protectionist alcohol laws might appear to be nothing more than garden variety restrictions on economic liberty, the role of Prohibition and its subsequent repeal add an additional constitutional...
View ArticleCameron Smith talks Alabama’s backdoor booze tax.
R Street’s Cameron Smith joined the Matt & Aunie Show on Birmingham’s Talk 99.5 to discuss backdoor booze taxes in Alabama. Audio of the show is embedded below. This work is licensed under a...
View ArticleWill Gov. Kay Ivey un-Bentley the ABC’s liquor tax hike?
The bureaucrats of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) are poised to pass a legally suspect tax hike and the Alabama Legislature is complicit. The only question left is whether Gov. Kay Ivey...
View ArticleCredit Where It’s Due: D.C.’s forward-looking liquor laws
For those outside the Beltway, Washington is often a punchline for bloated and dysfunctional government. In fact, cynicism toward the nation’s capital often feels like one of the few truly bipartisan...
View ArticleCheers to promoting free-market principles in liquor sales
The Florida Legislature last week acted to join the majority of states in modernizing its alcohol sales laws. Senate Bill 106, which currently awaits Gov. Rick Scott‘s signature, repeals an unnecessary...
View ArticleThe Bloody Mary: An unlikely breakfast of champions
Mmmm, breakfast. What appeals to the mouth and stomach at the early hour when the birds are singing and the sun’s rays are spraying over the horizon? Something starchy, like toast? Perhaps some protein...
View ArticleWho is to blame for the Seven and Seven?
R Street Vice President of Policy Kevin Kosar badgers the Toronto writer Adam McDowell. Kevin Kosar: Congrats on the publication of Drinks: A User’s Guide (Tarcher, 2016). It’s a smart-looking book,...
View ArticleCould economic liberty litigation ‘free the booze?’
The attached policy study originated as a three-part blog post series for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. The South Carolina Supreme Court recently struck down a state law limiting...
View ArticleFreeing the Booze: A recent court case could upend the alcohol industry
WASHINGTON (June 13, 2017) – A recent South Carolina Supreme Court decision could be a game-changer when it comes to ending oppressive and protectionist alcohol regulation regimes across the country,...
View ArticleIndiana doubles down on warm beer
Indiana lawmakers recently announced that they plan to study the state’s outdated alcohol laws this summer with an eye toward reforming them for the 21st century. While this is an encouraging sign, the...
View ArticleLegislature and Gov. Ivey pass bottle on tax hike to ABC Board
We don’t need the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in Alabama. It’s a bureaucratic dinosaur waiting for its extinction-level event. Now, the ABC has done the dirty work of raising taxes for the Alabama...
View ArticleToday’s whiskey is not yesterday’s — thank goodness
Some years ago, I attended a tasting where the representative of a well-known Scotch company claimed the whisky his firm makes today tastes the same as it did 150 years ago. This was blatant nonsense....
View ArticleFlying Dog loves the ‘F’ word
“You can say f— in front of the CEO and it’s not a big deal,” says Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso. In fact, as unbelievable as it might seem, profanity helps explain Flying Dog’s meteoric rise to the top of...
View ArticleAlabama ABC says ‘no’ to Margaritaville with pitcher ban
The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) doesn’t want you wasting away in Margaritaville, so they’ve banned pitchers of the frozen concoction outright. No, I’m not joking. But we shouldn’t be...
View ArticleAlabama backs down on targeting margarita pitchers
In these hot summer months, nothing refreshes like a margarita. But in Alabama, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board had banned pitchers of this limey and refreshing libation. Seriously. R...
View ArticleAlabama ABC reverses margarita pitcher ban but questions remain
The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) didn’t want you wasting away in Margaritaville, so they banned pitchers of the frozen concoction outright. Then I called them out on it, Alabamians...
View ArticleThe strange war on alcohol advertising
Earlier this year, a drumbeat began to ban drinks advertising. There was the Washington Post, which ran an article titled: “For women, heavy drinking has been normalized. That’s dangerous.” To ensure...
View ArticleMoonshine is not just an American thing
Growing up in this great country of ours, I got the impression that moonshine was a peculiarly American phenomenon. The Dukes of Hazzard television show (1979-1985) and films like Gator served up a...
View ArticleFree to Brew: Alabama’s war on margaritas
Cameron Smith uncovered Alabama’s overzealous alcohol control board attempting to ban the sale of pitchers of margaritas to adults. He explains how his team was able to help pressure the nannies in...
View ArticleRefreshing drinks to beat the August heat
Everyone who knows me knows I love whiskey. Bourbon, Irish, Scotch, Rye…it’s all so welcome to me. This summer, I enjoyed a great deal of Kentucky classics, especially Knob Creek and Harper’s. A liquor...
View ArticleAlabama ABC’s Twitter looks like somebody’s been drinking
Alabama’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) is a bit of a contradiction in terms. By its own admission, the ABC exists to ensure “high revenue with low consumption.” It’s little more than...
View ArticleHome brewing is legal, and home distilling should be too
In the aftermath of its failure to pass a health-care overhaul, Congress appears poised to turn to tax reform. While income and corporate tax rates will likely garner most of the attention, alcohol...
View ArticlePennsylvania’s stealth tax on drinks
Oh, Pennsylvania. You are wonderful in so many ways. Philadelphia has architectural marvels. Pittsburgh has the endlessly victorious Steelers and Penguins. The Allegheny and Poconos offer gorgeous...
View ArticleH Street Festival is a perfect example of why cities should ease...
The following op-ed was co-authored by R Street Governance Policy Fellow C. Jarrett Dieterle. Every September, thousands make their way to the District’s H Street neighborhood for the H Street...
View ArticleThe Last Frontier: The Online Economy And Alcohol
Alcohol chain retailer Total Wine & More recently announced a partnership with the app Minibar Delivery to launch an on-demand booze delivery system in Arlington, Virginia. The service, which...
View ArticleHow states use liquor markups to hide the bill from taxpayers
In states that hold a monopoly on the sale of spirits, liquor prices usually are set by a formula that includes at least one of three different components: taxes, fees and price markups. Markups are...
View ArticleThere’s a tear in my beer: How states use liquor markups to hide the bill...
WASHINGTON (Oct. 12, 2017) – In states that hold a monopoly on the sale of spirits, liquor prices usually are set by a formula that includes at least one of three different components: taxes, fees and...
View ArticleWhy do liquor rules vary drastically from state to state?
The R Street Institute’s Jarrett Dieterle appeared on Fox 5 DC’s “The Final Five” with Jim Lokay to discuss booze policy in America. They discussed the difficulty in reforming onerous state alcohol...
View ArticleMoonshine makes a comeback in Virginia. And this time, it’s legal
In 1620, the Rev. George Thorpe sent a letter from a plantation near Jamestown, Va., to England describing a “good drinke of Indian corne” that he and his fellow colonists had made. Historians have...
View ArticleUnusual drinks, part 1
There is something very satisfying about having a go-to drink. After a long day of work and kid care, a glass of whiskey is very welcome. The Kosar house bourbons include Four Roses Small Batch,...
View ArticleUnusual drinks, part 2
Sour beer, white lightning from South America, smoked rum and liqueur made from the sap of a tree in Greece — those were featured in my first installment of “Unusual Drinks.” But there is more...
View ArticleHow the PLCB enacts stealth taxes on Pennsylvanians with price markups
Pennsylvanians are used to buying their pinots and bourbons from state-run Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores, but most are probably unaware that the Keystone State is also using alcohol sales to enact...
View ArticleThe Library of Virginia’s ‘Teetotalers and Moonshiners’ exhibit
R Street’s DrinksReform.org team recently made a trip to Richmond, Virginia, to visit the Library of Virginia’s “Teetotalers & Moonshiners” exhibit. Given Virginia’s rich history with moonshine,...
View ArticleThe whiskey making was hard, but the government was easy
George Washington’s rebuilt distillery at Mount Vernon recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a team of master distillers from around the country producing a commemorative rye whiskey using the...
View ArticleTake an adventure into the delightful world of mezcal
After a recent party at a friend’s house, our host opened the small Stolichnaya bottle and the smell was overwhelming. The nose was a cross between a tire fire and burning leather. It tasted like...
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The military and whiskey’s 250-year-old relationship
Whiskey, as any enlistee will tell you, is popular among America’s fighting forces. Military installations’ drinks shops (“Class 6” stores) are stocked with a galaxy of intoxicating drinks — beer,...
View ArticleWhat the ‘H’ was I thinking about rhum?
My increasingly deep collection of spirits has long had a weak spot. No matter how interested I’ve become in everything from artisanal mezcals to Islay Scotches, I’ve nevertheless avoided experimenting...
View ArticleMy mouth, my choice: Raise a glass to Prohibition Repeal Day
Plenty of hooey comes from the mouths of elected officials. Arguably, the prize for the nuttiest statement of all might go to the late Sen. Morris Sheppard, D-Texas. In 1930, he haughtily declared,...
View ArticleA drinky gift guide
No going wrong with these Christmas recommendations. No to rock-hard fruitcakes. No to hideous neckties that match nothing in one’s wardrobe. No to useless contraptions like the Ronco inside-the-egg...
View ArticleAmerican Spirit: A Story of Virginia’s Liquor Laws
Jarrett Dieterle, R Street’s Director of Commercial Freedom and editor of DrinksReform.org, appears in a documentary on distilling regulations produced by the Federalist Society. He’s featured along...
View ArticleR Sheet: GOP Tax Reform Impact on Booze
This past December, Congress and President Donald Trump passed the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” which significantly reduced federal taxes across the board. While the legislation’s impact on general...
View ArticleScotchy, scotch: It’s cold out there
I grew up in Ohio, just south of the snow belt. My favorite home was a wood frame on a street without sidewalks. Drafts made their way in, and the single pane window near my bed got frost on the...
View ArticleMore whiskies to warm the belly and help me ride out the Winter
This year, the District of Columbia’s weather is nearly as screwy as its politics. A few days ago I was basking on a dock in the warm sun, yanking one catfish after another from the Anacostia River’s...
View ArticleVirginia has (yet another) opportunity to fix its backwards booze laws
In 1620, on the shores of the James River, early Virginia colonists distilled America’s first whiskey. Over a hundred years later, Virginia native George Washington built the largest distillery in the...
View ArticleRejoice, dogs! Man’s best friend may soon be able to join owners when they...
Is there anything worse than being left at home when your best friends go out for a good time? Every dog knows the feeling all too well. Where do our owners even go? Why can’t we come? Fortunately,...
View ArticlePink ale and other brews I’ve enjoyed recently
This past weekend, our glorious nation was awash in green beer. I meanwhile found myself tasting a pink ale. Before you judge — hear me out. I was making my way through the grocery store, cart...
View ArticleWeirdest Alcohol Laws: Real or Fake? Two Lawyers Quiz Each Other
R Street’s Jarrett Dieterle sat down with Anastasia Boden from the Pacific Legal Foundation to quiz each other on weird booze laws. Jarrett and Anastasia also talk about PLF’s latest case, which...
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