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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> General Forum --> Chitchat --> Beer laws

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ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


What does US law define as beer? Or is it defined on state level?

Dutch law says beer must be brewed with at least 60% of barley and/or wheat malt.




Posted 34 days ago.

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


I'm pretty sure that there are federal (i.e. countrywide) guidelines, but individual states are free to add their own definitions, as well.  Generally, states can make laws MORE restrictive than the federal law, but cannot make them LESS restrictive.

It looks like we lump beer and "malt beverages" together more or less.  From the TTB site:


Section 5052(a) of the IRC (26 U.S.C. 5052(a)) defines the term “beer,” for purposes of Chapter 51, as “beer, ale, porter, stout, and other similar fermented beverages (including sak� or similar products) of any name or description containing one-half of 1 percent or more of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from any substitute therefor.” Essentially the same definition appears in the TTB regulations at 27 CFR 25.11. In addition, with reference to what may be a substitute for malt, § 25.15(a) of the TTB regulations (27 CFR 25.15(a)) states that “[o]nly rice, grain of any kind, bran, glucose, sugar, and molasses are substitutes for malt.”





Posted 34 days ago.

mchrispen
Bastrop, TX
485 Posts


and then the states muff even that up...





Posted 34 days ago.

chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


If you look at the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, it covers "malt beverages", and requires that malt beverages must contain a minimum of 25% malted barley and 7-1/2 lbs. of hops per 100 bbl. The FAA governs labeling and packaging. It is possible to make a beer that does not qualify as a malt beverage, and then that puts you in a bit of a legal limbo -- the TTB issued a guidance to deal with that situation, TTB Ruling 2008–3 (July 7, 2008).

It's a bit of a mess.




Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


Thanks. So, theoretical a 75% sugar beer is possible. Wonder what it tastes like.

I'm playing with the idea to make a few maximum adjunct beers, according to Dutch law, inspired by the fact that the Japanese don't see Duvel and a few other Belgian beers not as beer. There is to their law too little malt sugar in it. In Dutch law this has changed from 55% to 60% and we don't know why.

An other inspiration is the amount of corn in Kentucky common and the amount of grits used by William Younger
barclayperkins.blogspot.nl/search?q=W...






Posted 34 days ago.

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


Let us know how it turns out!



Posted 34 days ago.

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