Mississippians toast stronger beer bill

By Meredith Moore

Residents of Oxford can raise their glasses in celebration of the passage of a bill that allows an increase in the alcohol percentage of beer across the state. With the change, restaurants and bars may expect to see an increase in business and an increase in the variety of beers allowed for sale.

 Gov. Phil Bryant signed the bill into law on April 8. The bill will raise the legal alcohol-by-weight (ABW) limit of beer manufactured from 5 percent to 8 percent. The new limit becomes law on July 1. This includes the professional brewing and sale of beer with higher alcohol content.

With the passage of this law, businesses are able to stock their bars with a variety of beers that previously would not have been allowed. This could broaden the craft beer industry in Mississippi, such as Lazy Magnolia, the state’s only craft brewery, located in Kiln, Miss.

Groups like Raise Your Pints, which has been lobbying for the change for three years, and many restaurant and bar owners, have supported the bill.

“I feel wonderful about the new beer law and I hope that we get the opportunity to change 75 percent of the tap wall because of it,” Irie on the Square bar manager Jennifer White said.

“I have to drive to Tennessee to buy my favorite kind of beer. This law will now add convenience to my life and I believe will increase alcohol sales in Mississippi,” said Elizabeth Hannah, student at Ole Miss.

Before this bill, beer was sold in Mississippi at the lowest alcohol content in the country, at 5 percent.