We’ve only just announced the campaign and already we’re seeing “Save The Craft” building momentum. Thank you!
First off, welcome to our new Twitter followers and to those of you “like” us on Facebook and a heartfelt thank you to everyone who liked, emailed, shared, commented, tweeted and re-tweeted about the “Save The Craft” campaign. We have already heard from some of you who have reached out to your local lawmakers. Thanks, you follow directions well. For those of you who have not done so yet, feel free to use our form letter and fire off a quick email or even make a phone call to your local legislator. If you don’t know who that is you can find out, here.
This is just the beginning of what could be a lengthy legislative battle in Springfield. Lawmakers are exposed to hundreds of bills each legislative session so it certainly doesn’t hurt to put this on their radar now.
We also got some nice play in the press yesterday. Chicagoist was the first to write about our efforts.
“Do you want to see your favorite craft beers sold in stores throughout Illinois? Do you want your neighborhood brewpubs to be able to distribute their beer? Call your state legislators and support “Save the Craft,” a campaign to revise the Liquor Control Act to make it easier for small, craft brewers to get their beers to the drinkers who want them. Bills are before the Illinois State House and Senate right now, and they need your support.”
And by mid-afternoon The Huffington Post got in to the mix.
“A team of local beer aficionados called, appropriately, Guys Drinking Beer, is one of the groups lobbying Springfield to adopt a middle path, allowing the little guys to self-distribute while keeping the three-tier system in place for behemoths like InBev.
The legislation they back would allow any brewer that produces fewer than 60,000 barrels of beer a year to obtain a distributor’s license. Brewpubs would also be able to distribute under the legislation.”
We even got a bit of love on twitter from Chef Tom.
Not a bad first day, huh? We can’t get too excited, though. This is just the beginning. So, please, reach out to your lawmakers, talk to the manager at your favorite bar and shoot an email to your local beer blogger and encourage them to join us in “Saving The Craft.”