10 March 2010

The PLCB Monkey Business Continues in Philadelphia.....

They went after a distributor yesterday.

Pennsylvania State Police have staged another beer raid, confiscating about a dozen cases from a leading distributor in Northeast Philadelphia and ordering it to stop selling several well-known imports, including Duvel, a popular Belgian beer sold throughout the Philadelphia region.
Agents from the State Police Department's Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement (BLCE) descended Monday night on Origlio's Beverage, a wholesale distributor in the Far Northeast whose primary brands include Coors and Yuengling.
The police seized about a dozen cases from a small California beermaker, Russian River Brewing Co., and ordered Origlio's to stop selling Duvel and other beers, including Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner and Monk's Cafe Ale, developed in Belgium for the Philadelphia bar at 16th and Spruce streets.
As in armed raids conducted last week against three Philadelphia taprooms, the State Police alleged that the targeted beers were not properly registered with the state Liquor Control Board for sale in Pennsylvania - a process involving limited paperwork and a $75 fee.
The sketchy evidence available suggests that several of the beers in fact had been properly registered, and related liquor taxes had been paid.
But apparent miscommunication between the Liquor Control Board and the State Police has left the state's investigators with only a foggy notion of what's registered and what isn't. The State Police proceeded with the latest raid in spite of the confusion.
"This is really an outrage," said a local bar owner who missed his Duvel delivery yesterday. "The state doesn't understand that Duvel actually is registered and has been sold here for years and years. It's almost unbelievable."
 Continue to monitor the news from the three intrepid Philly bloggers listed to the right: Jack CurtinLew Bryson, and Don Russell, and also Lew Bryson's long-running anti-PLCB blog . . . . .

. . . .  because, you know, we might look at this and shake our heads and laugh and say "whatta buncha mo-roooooons!"........  while at the same time, some busybody bureaucrats in Annapolis, a city/county office, or whatever, will see this and be inspired, and the next thing you know, Max's or The Wine Source are closed for three days while officials take inventory against a thoroughly fusterclucked official inventory list.......   and if you don't believe me, look at the fact that, in spite of overwhelming support for the concept, the booze industry STILL couldn't get a bill for direct wine shipments out of committee.  (More on that here and here.)

1 comment:

BeerGuy said...

The tipster was clearly upset someone was getting Russian River and he/she wasn't.