Johnson County Do You Want Breweries or Not? A must read for those in JOCO and the rest of Kansas City.

“Beschwere dich nicht, wenn du nicht bereit bist, etwas dagegen zu unternehmen.”
“Don’t complain unless you are willing to do something about it.”
-quote from the diary of great grandfather
Saccharo Myces


I felt this was an appropriate sentiment to start off today's blog regarding a craft beer miracle in the making. Johnson County is actually contemplating, key word contemplating, a little bit of progressiveness when it comes to alcohol. We have covered the dozens and dozens (go to 3:55) of reasons Missouri is the better beer state, with Missouri vs. Kansas: Blue Laws, CMB's, Dry Counties, Oh My! Kansas finally got rid of the 3.2% law, and now there is a push to repeal an archaic law from 1987. This law states that any establishment in Johnson County wanting to sell alcohol must get 30% of their sales from food. Obviously this is quite the problem if you want to open a small brewery, hence the lack of breweries in one of the most densely populated counties in the metro. I first noticed this issue when I visited Red Crow a couple of years ago. They had more food trucks and bar snacks than any brewery I had ever visited, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Craft breweries are now finally starting to fight the good fight for all the little people in the land of the free! So what does a dedicated, persistent, and tenacious beer drinker do to help with this fight? Simply follow the steps below.

Step 1: Be a fan of craft beer
Step 2: Go to the Limitless facebook page, or the brewery itself
Step 3: Find who your JOCO commissioner is via Limitless, google, your neighbor, or the library
Step 4: Email, write a letter, call, knock on their door, show up at their office, or send the Pony Express, and tell them you want more breweries and this law is asinine. Also tell them repeal will help small businesses grow and flourish. Tell them local beer is better for the environment and how you do not want to support the multinational-conglomerate, watered-down, cheap beer corporations. You can also mention how many successful breweries are located across the state line.
Step 5: If they still say no, vote them out of office.

I’m not sure which brewery started this grassroots campaign, but Limitless, Servaes, Transport, and Sandhills are in on the facebook action. The only way to let the citizens vote on a ballot initiative is to get the commissioners to pass a resolution, or get a citizen’s petition. So the current approach is via the commissioners.

KCTV has another write-up discussing this conundrum as well.

Cheers,
Brett A. Myces