The impact of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Ivory Tower Brewery

By Laura Marion
Due to a change in legislation, Appalachian State Universitys Department of
Fermentation Sciences has been able to apply for permits that, if granted, will allow them
to sell the beer that the students produce in their classes.
North Carolina Statute 18b-1114.6, the brewing, distillation, and fermentation course
authorization law, defines the type of learning institution that can sell malt beverages as a
community college or college that offers a class such as a fermentation sciences course
that produces the product as part of the program.
Brett Taubman, President of Appalachian State Universitys Ivory Tower Brewery and
fermentation sciences professor at Appalachian State University says that the goal of
applying for permits is so that the students can learn how to run a brewery-type business
before they get out into the real world. He hopes that campus functions, which have in the
past gotten beer from other locations, will now purchase the fermentation sciences Ivory
Tower brews.
Although the legislature has passed and Appalachian State Universitys General Council
has submitted their application for these permits, Taubman is unsure of when the permits
will be approved.
I assume theyre sitting somewhere on someones desk at the ABC, Taubman says.
Taubman also organizes the High Country Beer Festival each year, the proceeds of which
fund the fermentation sciences department at Appalachian State University. However, this
year the ABC began enforcing fines and shutting down North Carolina festivals.
Several festivals located near Asheville, N.C. were heavily cited or shut down by Alcohol
Law Enforcement. Mountain Brew Festival, a charity event held by the environmental
non-profit Mountain True cancelled their event before it happened. In an apology
statement on their website, Mountain True said, Unfortunately, due to our and others
inability to get clear and consistent answers regarding event requirements from the
Alcohol Beverage Control and Alcohol Law Enforcement agencies, we determined that it
was impossible to ensure the kind of high-quality event our community deserves.
Agnes Stevens, Public Affairs Director of the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control
Commission, stated in an email, As you may be aware, earlier this year several recent
beer festivals had multiple infractions of the ABC laws that are designed to protect public
safety. The Commission places a priority on public safety.
Taubman, however, believes that the reason for what he considers to be a sudden
crackdown on beer festivals is ironic.

Before, they just didnt have the enforcement capability because they didnt have the
money to be able to enforce the laws, Taubman says. Now that the industry has grown
so much and continues to grow and thats pumping money into the ABC and the ALE
through tax revenues, now they can enforce these statutes.
Taubman admits, however, that some of the fines incurred by breweries at festivals were
necessary, because certain brewers were drinking on the job and over-pouring.
Stevens stated, In particular the Commission supports a healthy craft beer industry in
North Carolina and works in partnership with ALE on enforcement and education related
to alcohol laws.
Taubman and the other organizers of the High Country Beer Festival wanted to do all that
they could to make sure that their event wasnt cited or shut down.
We had done our due diligence with the ABC and local ALE officer. Taubman says.
We had a meeting with them. The ALE officer came to the meeting and answered our
questions. There was supposed to be an ABC representative there too, they cancelled at
the last minute. There was still enough unanswered questions to make us a little uneasy,
but from the responses we had gotten from the ABC and from the ALE officer we felt
confident enough to go forward and that we had done what we needed to do to be sure we
werent going to get shut down and that nobody was going to get citations for unknown
reasons.
Taubman says that, despite this meeting, some breweries were still too nervous to
participate, and that 14 breweries dropped out of the High Country Beer Festival at the
last minute. Despite this, Taubman is pleased with how the festival turned out, and looks
forward to obtaining the permits so that Ivory Tower can begin selling beer.
I think were pretty content with what weve done so far and what were able to do now,
but yeah, theres always things that need to change, Taubman says of todays alcohol
laws.