Let me clarify the AL law: 60 gallons a year total. 15 gallons per quarter total. No more than 15 gallons in possession or in household at any one time during the year. Transportation on public right of ways of 10 gallons or less is OK.
All of that is void if you live in a dry county, where it is still completely illegal. That means that in one-third of the state, it remains illegal to brew or ferment any quantity. I have not heard the level of the offense, but in the past it was a felony.
So yes, it allows for fermentation on an extremely limited basis for a certain group of people in areas that have approved commercial alcoholic sales. And it does decriminalize the possession of brewing or fermenting equipment.
On the other hand, the separate proposal to allow Alabama wineries to open off-site tasting rooms and sell their wine directly from those rooms did not make it out of committee. You can still sell commercially only from the winery itself, a very small volume business. But the beer and liquor distributors lobby is powerful.
Thus, lawmakers ensured that commercial wineries will not be able to grow in the state. All of its wineries are currently too small in production to interest a distributor in their wares. So you only get to buy big wines the big distributors have brought in, and they make the money. See how this works?
As far as Free the Hops, it is primarily a craft brewers organization intent on liberalizing the beer laws to allow for more commercial craft breweries. FTH is not nearly as big a supporter of individual rights to brew or ferment, as that potentially takes revenues from its member base. I'm not saying FTH did nothing to push the bill - it just did a lot less than it did to push the beer container size increase and other craft industry friendly reforms.
