Craig Hendry
It’s strange to believe that homebrewing wasn’t legal in all 50 states until last year. Mississippi was the final holdout that still operated under antiquated (albeit rarely enforced) Prohibition-era regulations that forbade producing one’s own beer, but thanks to the lobbying efforts of Craig Hendry and Raise Your Pints—the consumer advocacy group he co-founded—the ban was lifted. This just a year after the group got the State Legislature to raise the alcohol limit to 10% from 6.25%.
Hendry is an avid homebrewer himself, as you might expect, with 13 years’ experience under his belt and over 35 medals to show for it. In 2007, he started Raise Your Pints because he’d tired of needing to travel out of state just to find a better selection of craft beer at bars and on retail shelves. In addition, Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co. was the only brewery in the state until 2012, but after the passage of the two bills that relaxed some of the restrictions on alcohol, there are now nine breweries in the state and counting.
Hendry’s group—which now boasts over 2,500 members—has enjoyed its successes, but Hendry asserts that there is still plenty more to be done. “We worked on legalizing brewery tap rooms and limited onsite sales during the 2014 legislative session earlier this year, but did not succeed.“ As for what they’re up to in between legislative sessions, Hendry doesn’t entertain the idea of down time. “We’re in education mode: promoting craft beer and Mississippi’s growing brewing industry [while we] continue raising lobbying funds.”
This profile appears in the November 2014 issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here for a free trial of our next issue.
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