Yes, we know it’s tomorrow, but as most of you will be picnicking, boating, hiking, swimming, rafting, tubing or barbecuing tomorrow, we thought we’d just wish you a Happy Fourth of July right now! Bruisin’ Ales will be open regular hours today, 12-9pm and 12-4pm tomorrow. (Just in case you forget your beer today.) Right now, we’re being grumpy watching everyone’s plans on Twitter and Facebook, so come in and see us and say hi! In not-quite-Loverboy fashion, we’re “working for the weekend.” Do I get a snazzy headband with that? Pleather pants?

A few more things are coming in today—yay! [EDIT: There's more!]

DOGFISH HEAD Theobroma* (very limited!)
FOUNDER’S Devil Dancer Triple IPA* (extremely limited!)
GREAT DIVIDE Oak-aged Chocolate Yeti*
GREAT DIVIDE 15th Anniversary (Wood-aged Dbl IPA)*
GREAT DIVIDE Double White
STONE BREWING 11th Anniversary Ale*
STONE BREWING Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale*

Enjoy the holiday, everyone! Please be safe out there. I love sparklers.

Keeping up with the new beers is practically a full-time job in itself. We let it go for one week—one week—and look what happens. Oy.

One of the most exciting things to happen in awhile: Reaper Ales. Very cool little line of brews, all with a death theme of course. Beers for vampires, goths, and other-worldly folk. From Cali, Reaper Ales are made in Lake Elsinore, which in itself sounds kinda creepy, no? So, I guess we welcome death to the shelves this week. That seems wrong.

AVERY “Sixteen” Anniversary Ale*
BALLAST POINT Sculpin Double IPA* (very limited!)
BELHAVEN Scottish Stout
BOULDER BREWING Flashback Anniversary Ale*
BOULDER BREWING Singletrack*
BISON BREWING (ORGANIC) Honey Basil
BISON BREWING (ORGANIC) Single-hop Willamette IPA
DOGFISH HEAD Sah’Tea* (very limited!)
GRADO PLATO Chocarrubaca
HOPPIN’ FROG Out-of-Kilter Scottish Ale
LA DIVINE Double Blonde
LA DIVINE Tripel Amber
LEFEBVRE Saison 1900
LINDEMANS Cuveé Renee Gueze
PICCOLO Chiostros (absinthe beer!)
REAPER ALES Mortality Stout
REAPER ALES Sleighor Double IPA
REAPER ALES Redemption Red
ST. BERNARDUS Prior 8
ST. LOUIS Frambroise
ST. LOUIS Kriek
WEYERBACHER Zotten*

There’s a great column by Daniel Bradford, of All About Beer Magazine, in today’s Winston-Salem Journal regarding the proposed new North Carolina excise taxes on beer, wine and alcohol. As you know, Governor Perdue has been going around—she was in Asheville two weeks ago—talking to communities about how to manage the NC budget. Most of the attention on that visit went to not cutting teachers and school funding, which is the right thing to do, but we don’t even know if anyone in our beer community went to see her speak. Was beer even mentioned in her meeting? (If you know, let me know.) The first round of NC “sin” taxes on alcohol were killed, but this one is even harder: NC is proposing to raise the tax on based on its alcoholic content. That means a huge leap in high-gravity beers. (And let’s not forget the federal tax proposal, which is a whole other matter. However, there is S.1058, which proposes to lower beer taxes to pre-1991 levels which is showing strong support online.)

Bradford says:

Most people aren’t aware that the North Carolina excise tax on beer is the sixth highest in the country. And you might be surprised to know that North Carolina collected more last year in beer taxes than all but four other states. Actually, the typical beer consumer spends 40.8 percent of the price of beer on taxes. …

Whatever economic benefit derived from the tax increase would be swallowed by the added economic costs of an industry thrown into crisis.

A statement from the North Carolina Beer and Wine Wholesalers breaks it down into layman speak with some pretty fascinating numbers: North Carolina beer distributors employ close to 3,000 American workers, paying them more than $156 million in wages and benefits. The overall economic contribution from North Carolina’s beer distributors is $350 million. And, here’s the press release from March, when the budget was proposed. (.pdf)

So, what would this tax this mean?

• Higher costs on all things alcoholic from retail to restaurants.
• The tax on a six-pack would go up by a shocking 145%.
  
• A strain on smaller breweries, a good portion of which contribute greatly to our state in both tourism and taxes.
• Possible brewery closures for those unable to stay afloat, most of which are family-owned businesses or entrepreneurs.
  
• Proposals to increase and equalize the tax among all types of alcohol will tax small brewers at the highest rates because their specialty, gourmet and innovative beers typically have higher alcohol contents.
• Brewers already pay a disproportionately higher share of taxes compared with other products – federal, state and local taxes represent over 40% of the retail price for beer while the same taxes equal nearly 24% of the price for all other purchases.

Last month, I met with the Asheville Brewers Alliance, telling them about these issues. I know of a few breweries that have sent in their letters to both the governor and our local state representatives. That’s great, but we need the people to speak. Please, please, PLEASE, write Governor Perdue, write our representatives and senators and tell them, “Don’t tax our beer!”

Whoa, we had blog burnout again. Sorry about that. The awesome Beer City Bash just wiped me out, but we’re all cool now. I’ve been Tweeting @bruisinales and lately found myself doing that more than the blog. 140 characters or less is easy! Blogging takes time. It’s like writing a mini-assignment every day, which I’m sure is good for both vocabulary and writing skills, but let’s just say, there’s a greater appreciation for perils of writers’ block over here these days.

So we got our Facebook “Vanity URL:” http://www.facebook.com/bruisinales Took three days, but we got it. Please, if you haven’t already, migrate yourself from the Bruisin’ Ales Group over the Bruisin’ Ales Page, because we’re going to get rid of the Group at the end of this month.

We are in the process of updating the entire Bruisin’ Ales, including an e-comm store. THAT is the part that sucks and is taking so much time. But it’s looking good so far!

Breaking news on Facebook: Reggae Mike & Sarah got engaged on their travels. Congrats, guys! Big love! Hooray!

We were really thinking of firing him for taking three weeks off, but in light of this news, we’ll give him another chance, since he probably has to pay for a ring and stuff.

Aren’t they just adorable? Awwww…