The hot, new, premium craft distillery scene is making great progress in the US. Nebraska has just passed Legislative Bill 549 which will take effect this fall, allowing the concept of micro-distilleries. Craft distilleries will be allowed to sell their spirits directly to the public like micro-breweries do, at their own restaurants, as well as in stores like regular distilleries.

Upstream Brewing Company plans to open the first distillery in Nebraska since Prohibition. Their brew master Zac Triemert studied distilling in Scotland for a year, earning a master's degree in 2006 in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

I think that more states are going to jump on this idea. Soon the US will be back to pre-Prohibition years when there were hundreds of craft distilliries around the country sell premium, high quality, small batch, hand made spirits of all kinds. Just like the micro-brewery scene that has developed over the past 30 years, so too will we have a great micro-distillery scene. I look forward to it. Hopefully the more people learn about quality over quantity, the more educated consumers there are, the less low quality products we will see. (And maybe more responsible drinking where sipping is the game, not binge drinking.) I'm all for it.

A man in Lincoln, Nebraska has been accused of stealing over 27,000 pounds of rib-eye steaks from Universal Cold Storage, the place where he works. The man allegedly stole the beef over a four-week period while working on the loading docks, then turned around and sold the steaks to friends. I can't even imagine sticking a single steak in my purse, so 27,000 pounds is certainly, well, impressive, I guess.

According to the company, the stolen beef was worth $129,000. Those are some steaks, since that means they were $4.78 a pound!

Last week, eight workers at a ConAgra pork processing facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, won $365 million in a Powerball drawing. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently contacted the eight winners and asked them to donate a small share of their winnings to improving the lives of pigs that have been rescued from slaughterhouses or 4-H fairs. PETA argues that pigs are what formed the livelihood of the workers and that the animals should be re-payed somehow.

[Via Pork Magazine, which has a slightly different slant]

I recently learned that drinks combining beer and alcohol--such as an Irish car bomb (Guinness, Bailey's and Irish whiskey)--have been illegal in Nebraska for the last 71 years. It is a felony to consume or serve such a drink at a bar. Nebraska senator Doug Cunningham is trying to get the law repealed, claiming that very few establishments still recognize it. According to a recent article in the Daily Nebraskan, the law was originally implemented to keep boiler-repair workers from getting too drunk.

Some folks in Nebraska think the law should stay in place, as it would keep people from getting too drunk too fast. I don't really understand how this is a problem specific to drinks that mix beer and alcohol. What about drinks that mix alcohol and alcohol? Regardless of what a bartender is pouring, overserving a customer is always a liability.

Also, I'm not clear on whether the law prohibits ordering a shot and a beer side by side, as well as combining the two.

[Photo: Baron's Blog]