Hattiesburg American published a great article featuring quotes from Butch Bailey of Raise Your Pints, Leslie Henderson of Lazy Magnolia, Sam Sorrells of Gordon Creek Brewery, and John Neal of Keg & Barrel / Southern Prohibition Brewing.

With a new age of beer consumption dawning in Mississippi on the same day as the finals of the Euro 2012 soccer, Joey Vaughan and Nathan Latil just couldn’t help themselves.

With their drinking parlors at home shut down on Sundays, the Oxford residents decided to make the trek to the Keg & Barrel in Hattiesburg to celebrate the first day Mississippi beer aficionados could tap a wider – and more potent – variety of the yeasty beverage.

“We make runs to Memphis all the time to buy beers that we can’t get in Mississippi,” Latil said, “and that’s what we were saying on the ride down, you know, ‘Well, we really could have just gone up to Memphis and picked up some beers and watched the game at the house,’ but it was like, “No, no, no. We want to do this in our state, finally, and enjoy the beers that we want to in our own state.

“We didn’t want to wait a whole day to celebrate the new law.”

The two were joined by a bevy of fellow beerniks thronging inside and spilling onto K&B’s porch and shaded outdoor tables to enjoy the amended state law allowing the sale and manufacture of higher-alcohol-content beer that took effect July 1.

“It’s a great, great day,” said Raven Allbritton of Hattiesburg, who was joined by Andy Crumpton of Hattiesburg in sampling new wares such as “Jockamo” and “Andygator” from Abita Brewing Co. in Covington, La., and “A Beer Named Sue” from Yazoo Brewing Co. in Nashville.

But those are just a sampling of what could be pouring from area taps and stocked on local shelves in the near future.

“We have approved 124 (new) labels for distribution already,” said Kathy Waterbury, communications director for the Mississippi Department of Revenue. “There were a lot of them we got right after it was signed into law. Really, they were already calling before it was signed into law.

“So, yes, there will be new product coming.”

And not only from out of state.

The Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co. in Kiln, currently Mississippi’s lone brewery, unveiled an India Pale Ale dubbed “Timber Beast” at midnight Sunday.

“This is a really good thing for everybody,” said Leslie Henderson, Lazy Magnolia co-owner, who also was able to offer brewery tours for the first time Sunday. “For our customers, for our distributors, for ourselves, for everybody. There’s no downside to this.”

The new law signed in April by Gov. Phil Bryant mimicked those found in other states across the nation, bumping the ceiling on alcohol content in beers made and sold in Mississippi from 5 percent alcohol by weight to 8 percent ABW.

That equates to about 10.3 percent by volume, a more common measurement.

Any new beer, whether produced in state or beyond the borders, has to be given a thumbs-up from the state before it can be distributed and/or sold, Waterbury said.

“It’s a tremendously good thing,” said Butch Bailey of Hattiesburg, founder of “Raise Your Pints,” a beer fan club that spearheaded the “Big Beer” campaign in Mississippi.

“After 106 years, Mississippi has lifted the prohibition on high-gravity beer. This just feels righteous.”

Commercially, Mississippi offers commercial brewers two options: Operate as a brewpub, where beer produced is sold on premises or as a brewery, which beyond a tasting room, has to distribute the large portion of its product to distributors for retail sale.

“In Mississippi, it’s a three-tier system: manufacturers, distributors, retailers,” Waterbury said.

The Keg and Barrel has operated as a brewpub for the past four years or so, with its in-house Southern Prohibition microbrewery producing about three barrels of brew a month.

“We’re probably the smallest brewer in the country,” K&B owner John Neal said. “We have a lot of great beers on the wall here, so the whole idea was to produce extremely flavorful and different styles of beer, and to complement, not compete, with what we already had.

“We wanted to gear (Southern Prohibition-produced beers) toward the craft beer drinker.”

They did just that this weekend, offering “Little DIPA,” a double-IPA, and a Russian Imperial Stout.

Neal said SoPro, under master brewer Ben Green, will have to expand its capacity because of the longer fermentation time necessary to produce higher-alcohol beer.

“In the next couple of months, we’ll be looking to expand,” Neal said.

Bailey said the craft beer movement has been afoot and growing nationwide.

“The momentum for craft beers has been growing for the past 10 years or so, and it’s really been a tremendous, steady growth in the beer industry,” Bailey said. “Mississippi’s been at the tail end of that because of some of these laws.”

Bailey said he expected the new laws to create business opportunities around the state.

“I have no doubt, that within a year from this law’s change, we will double (our breweries and brewpubs),” Bailey said. “At least. Easily.”

Sam Sorrells, who brewed at K&B for four years, has struck out on his own with wife, Karie, and said he hopes to have their Gordon Creek Brewery opened by football season.

“I see this being a trend, with more and more people getting into it,” Sorrels said. “Beer, historically, has been very much a local product. Now, (the Busch family), they figured out a model and were able to go national with refrigeration and everything, but we’re seeing a trend back toward local beers.”

That suited Rob Benfer of Hattiesburg just fine.

“I’ve always had a fascination with different kinds of beers, so (Sunday), it’s a good thing,” Benfer said. “Anything that gets Mississippi out of the dark ages and up with the rest of the country is good by me.”

via HattiesburgAmerican.com

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