Will California Outlaw Coffee Stout with Bill AB 1598?

A law to outlaw pre-packaged beverages containing stimulants and alcohol would be pointless.

Stimulant use (caffeine, guarana, taurine, ginseng, etc) paired with alcohol is incredibly common. These readily available malt beverages may be easy to point to, but the fact is that anyone can mix Red Bull and vodka. Drinking coffee before/while/after drinking alcohol would have the same effect.

So the law wants to ban purple paint but continue to sell red and blue. It's just stupid.

It is absurd that adding coffee to a beer. Could be considered the same as all the chemical ingredients that were capable of eating thru aluminum cans in sparks(yes, when first released it happened! Entire shipments recalled)!

Please do not be passive on this issue! Just because it is not all over the news is not a fair reason to believe this issue won't pass! Do what you can to make this appear in every media possible. Every vote on this counts!

The government needs to stop making every last thing illegal. Sure, poison is not cool to serve, but with caffeine and alcohol, let the consumers regulate themselves.

I love my coffee stouts!

Benia

I reached out to Frances Grammer for clarification. Here's what I got back, FWIW:

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Sean,

I believe I misspoke; the need for the legislation was presented after an agreement was made with attorneys general from 25 states including California. Miller-Coors agreed to remove stimulants from their energy drink Sparks and Anheuser-Busch Cos. agreed to do the same with its Tilt and Bud Extra brews.

Unfortunately, two beverages made by a Chicago company, Four Loko and Four Maxed, and a Los Angeles company’s drink, Joose, have become the two top brands in the caffeinated alcohol category since Sparks was reformulated.

Sincerely,

FRANCES GRAMMER

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Got an email response to Jim Beall asking for clarification on this bill and its impact on beer:

Mr. Brewhiker,

The Assemblymember is working with the craftsbrewer association to attempt to clarify the legislation. The intent of AB 1598 is to enforce federal legislation that prohibits alcoholic beverages that are spiked with stimulants.

Sincerely,

Frances Grammer

Senior Field Representative

I'm pretty optimistic this bill is going nowhere.

Like all laws, they have to be enforced to have teeth. To enforce, the Governor through his cabinet, must adopt regulation. It's the regulation that will define what drinks are covered/not covered under this law.

The legislature and the governor is not going to let California's craft brewing industry go out the window, along with its jobs and tourism.

And if this bill is like the 90% of other bills that get introduced into the legislature, it's going to die in committee. If you look at the history of this bill, it's been in committee since Jan 14.

This bill was brought up by The Marin Institute, an anti-alcohol group. Nobody takes them seriously. Groups like these do this sort of thing for publicity, never expecting it get anywhere. The publicity is what causes people to donate money to them. Most likely Marin donated some money to Beall's campaign, and Beall followed through with this request.

If this was going anywhere, it'd be all over the news.

Well, let me just say that the bill is at best bad legislation for many of the reasons you mentioned. It just screams out "Won't somebody think of the children?!!"

That said, with respect to coffee in beer, I think beer is safe. Here's why:

AB1598 attempts to define what a "caffeinated malt beverage" is. In doing so, it goes as far as to exempt certain products which are specified under federal code:

For purposes of this section, "caffeinated malt beverage"
means a beverage for which the producer is required to file a formula
for approval with the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and
Tax Bureau pursuant to Section 25.55 of Title 27 of the Code of
Federal Regulations

From Section 25.55 of Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

(a) For what fermented products must a formula be filed? You must
file a formula for approval by TTB if you intend to produce:
(1) Any fermented product that will be treated by any processing,
filtration, or other method of manufacture that is not generally
recognized as a traditional process in the production of a fermented
beverage designated as ``beer,'' ``ale,'' ``porter,'' ``stout,''
``lager,'' or ``malt liquor.''"

Therefore, it would seem beer is safe unless you're doing something that compels you to report your "formula" to the federal government. Yet, as you note, there is this notion of "traditional brewing process." Coffee in beer seems like a relatively new thing, but it isn't like the brewing process is at all altered to incorporate the coffee. It seems like the authors of the bill are trying to exempt beer, but there's a lot of room for interpretation. Given the recent ATC crackdown on infusions (http://mobile.sfist.com/2010/02/26/alcoholic_bever...) I'd prefer to just see the bill die a quick death in the assembly. All it would take is some federal

Whatever the intention it's just another attempt at prohibition.