Maryland may license the teaching of homebrewing

Maryland General Assembly House Bill 674 and Senate Bill 716, as they now stand, contain these provisions for:

Establishing a home brewing instructor's permit; providing a permit fee of $250; authorizing the Office of the Comptroller to issue a permit to specified individuals; authorizing a permit holder to teach a client methods of brewing beer under specified circumstances; restricting the use of beer produced for specified purposes; prohibiting a permit holder from holding a specified license or other permit; and authorizing the Office of the Comptroller to adopt specified regulations.

The proposed bills further state:

All beer produced may be used only for instructional purposes, home consumption, and the personal use of the client. The Office of the Comptroller may adopt regulations regarding limits on the quantities of beer produced, requirements for record keeping, and any other activities that relate to the use of a home brewing instructor's permit.

Look out!

Even though this is probably targeted towards businesses, such as brew-on-premises and homebrew shops, the bill's language is quite vague. It might easily transmogrify into regulatory control over homebrewing. If a buddy comes over and watches you homebrew, did you just teach him? If you give a bottle to a friend, did you just violate the unspecified "specified" circumstance?

Contact your local Maryland legislator—soon—if you qualms about any of this.

House sponsors:

• Delegate Todd Schuler
• Delegate Joseph Boteler
• Delegate Eric Bromwell

Senate sponsors:

• Senator Katherine Klausmeier
• Senator James Brochin
• Senator Richard F. Colburn
• Senator Norman R. Stone

I was alerted to this by a post on DC-Beer.

[UPDATE 2008.03.07: Homebrewing license fee nixed for now]