The beer shelf at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville is lined with an assortment of pilsners, porters and ales. Some names are more locally recognized — Highland’s Gaelic, Duck Rabbit Stout — others imported, like Peroni or Bass Ale. Still others are aimed at niche markets, such as the organic Wolaver’s or the kosher He’Brew (“The Chosen Beer”).

Conspicuously absent from this roster of malted offerings are some classic beers: Scottish ales, German bocks, imperial stouts and barleywines that traditionally cross North Carolina’s self-imposed 6-percent alcohol content restriction. North Carolina is one of only six states — along with South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia — that continues to hold on to its Prohibition-era alcohol limitations.

So when out-of-state tourists come to the Wineseller looking for beers from home, sommelier Marshall Kirksey has his speech rehearsed.

“It doesn’t happen all the time, but I’ll have certain customers come in who are used to buying particular beers and I’ll have to explain to them why we can’t sell it,” Kirksey said.

Tired of the taste bud discrimination, beer drinkers across the state have banded together to form the grassroots organization Pop the Cap, which lobbied for the introduction of a bill to raise the state’s percent-alcohol restriction from 6 to 15.

“Our hope is that, by the fall, you will be able to enjoy the full range of the world’s beer styles, including a number of great North Carolina brewers serving up beer previously banned in the state,” said Pop the Cap president and co-founder Sean Wilson, who lives in the Triangle area.

It’s not so much a matter of more alcoholic beer — Scottish ales tend to be around the 8-percent mark — but of better beer and more choices. Approximately one-third of the world’s beers are not available in North Carolina due to the law.

“(Availability) educates the public that there’s something other than Brand X, Super Bowl commercial, pilsner lagers in the world,” said John Duncan, owner of Dingleberry’s, a homebrew supply store in Sylva.

Opponents of the bill, including Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League, have stuck largely to religious grounds, claiming high-powered commercial brewers such as Anheuser-Bush and Coors are pushing it forward in the interest of sales. Creech’s group also organizes opposition to on-premise alcohol sales referendums and was actively campaigning against a vote two years ago in Canton. Voters approved the referendum.

However, large brewing companies have remained neutral in this legislative fight, Pop the Cap organizers say.

“The fact of the matter is 80 percent of our funding has come from North Carolina beer lovers tired of this paternalistic law,” Wilson said.

From a brewer’s standpoint

At Heinzelmannchen Brewery in Sylva, owner and brewer Dieter Kuhn is eagerly anticipating passage of the Pop the Cap bill. He’s passed on his four signature brews — Ancient Days Honey Blonde Ale, Gopher Ale (all pilsner, no actual gopher), Middleworld Brown Ale and Black Forest Stout — for Pop the Cap fund raisers and, in the meantime, has been practicing his Scottish Ale.

“I brew a Scottish Ale with a German twist,” Kuhn said.

For now, the ale, with its 8 to 9 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), is not allowed on the market. But if the bill should pass, Kuhn wants to be ready. Each new beer must undergo rigorous testing at the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission before it can be sold.

Kuhn is not alone.

The Highland Brewing Company, based in Asheville, also has been hard at work on a new Scottish Ale with an eye cast on the future.

“It was just brewed, it’s in the tanks. It won’t be ready for a couple of months,” said Oscar Wong, company president. “So yes, I’m optimistic.”

If the bill doesn’t pass, the beer will be shipped out of state, most likely to Georgia. Therein lies the makers’ dilemma.

“NC brewers have the same opportunities as out-of-state and out-of-country breweries,” said Doyle Alley, deputy administrator of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control commission. True, no one from out of state can sell high ABV beer in North Carolina bars, and the state’s breweries can make the beers and sell them across the border just like any other brewer.

But what good is beer that can’t earn its notoriety in local bars?

“It curtails the creativity of the brewer to some extent,” Kuhn said.

In general, beer tends to be around 5 or 6 percent ABV. High alcohol beers require a careful balance of content and taste.

So how do brewers balance higher alcohol content with taste?

“That’s the tricky part,” Kuhn said.

Higher ABV beers tend to be heavier and denser, such as the Scottish ales, also known as “wee heavies.” The taste is derived from ingredients available in Scotland where barley grows well, but hops — which give beer its more bitter taste — do not. Hops were imported, but at high prices, and so small amounts were used. As a result, Scottish ales became known for their malty, richness.

However, the dark and strong mantra doesn’t always hold true. Guinness — the stout standby — has a lower ABV than Budweiser. Some of the strongest beers on the market tend to be pale Belgians.

A little lesson about the law

North Carolina’s 6-percent limit is said to be a leftover from the days of Prohibition. The state waited until two years after the federal government repealed the prohibition on alcohol to reinstate the sale of beer, wine and liquor.

At the time, politically connected textile mill owners pressured state legislators to include an alcohol restriction on beer — the working man’s drink — as they feared their employees might not show up to work. Beer is the only bar oriented beverage to bear an alcohol content restriction. Wine generally contains 20 percent or more ABV, while hard liquor ranges anywhere from 20 to 80 percent.

The move for change began when Raleigh News & Observer columnist and editor of All About Beer magazine Julie Johnson Bradford wrote a piece addressing the 6-percent restriction. A self-described “underemployed” envelope stuffer for the Brewers Association of America in Durham, Wilson read Bradford’s piece and started kicking around the question “What can we do?” Wilson called a meeting with Bradford and the head of the Brewers Association — Bradford’s husband, Daniel — to come up with ideas.

“Daniel, Julie and I talked about it for 20 minutes, and Julie and I decided to gather up our friends, home brewers, and the general ‘network’ to try and organize a grassroots movement to lift the 6-percent cap. This was in February of 2003,” Wilson said. “Since that time, we’ve incorporated, hired a lobbyist, and have built a e-newsletter mailing list of around 1,500 individuals, most of them North Carolina residents.”

The Pop the Cap bill passed the state House of Representatives June 2 by a vote of 68 to 46. Locally, only Rep. Phil Haire (D-Sylva) voted for the bill. Rep. Roger West (R-Andrews) and Rep. Ray Rapp (D-Mars Hill) both voted against it.

Rapp said the bill’s passage was carried by swing voters who took Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s neutrality on the issue as a sign of approval. Rapp said he would have voted for the bill with an amendment to limit ABV to 9 percent.

“It would have allowed those specialty beers, but at the same time would not have allowed for beers to be far more potent,” Rapp said.

Representatives Haire and West did not return phone calls to their Raleigh offices seeking comment about their votes.

Based information from Pop the Cap lobbyist Theresa Kostrzewa, Western North Carolina’s Senate delegation — Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) and Sen. Keith Presnell (R-Burnsville) — appear poised to vote against the bill as well.

“Snow indicated pretty early on the he just would not be able to vote in favor of it given his constituency,” Kostrzewa said. “Presnell is pretty much in the same boat in that regard.”

Presnell said that he was not particularly familiar with the bill, but didn’t think he would be supporting it based on its subject matter.

“I’ve never been one who supported the alcohol,” Presnell said.

While Snow was not available for comment, his legislative aide indicated the senator would not be supporting the bill.

But failing to garner WNC’s legislative support is not for lack of trying, Pop the Cap organizers say. The grassroots group held a private legislative tasting at The Pour House in Raleigh June 8 to educate lawmakers about what they’re missing.

“Their idea of a beer was a Bud,” Kostrzewa said.

Complicating the cause is the fact that it’s harder to mobilize beer drinkers and out-of-staters than it is to rustle up religious outcry.

“Over time the religious organizations have exerted a greater influence,” Kostrzewa said.

But Pop the Cap has drawn the attention of some of the most respected and well-known names in the beer business nationwide — Rogue Ales, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, The Boston Beer Company, Tryon Distributing and the Flying Saucer, all of whom have contributed to the organization.

Cheaper by the dozen

One of the arguments opponents of the Pop the Cap bill have raised is that opening the door for beer with higher alcohol content only will facilitate drinkers getting drunk faster.

“The toughest hurdles were in the beginning with the ABC committee,” said Wong, president of The Highland Brewing Company. “There were a lot of people who felt it really wasn’t necessary to go increasing alcohol levels. There were a few people that felt that there was enough availability.”

That mantra holds true locally.

“For people interested in microbrews, I think there are enough other options out there,” said Monica Brown, innkeeper at the Freymont Inn in Bryson City, which has a bar for the public and guests.

But while more alcohol is more alcohol, the beers that fall under the intended scope of the bill are not designed for mass quantity consumption, a la fraternity party funnels or low-income drinkers.

“These beers are not really geared for a guy to pound, shall we say,” Wong said. “It’s treated almost like wine. It’s more cautiously imbibed.”

Kuhn agreed.

“Generally the craft beers are higher priced and limitedly available,” he said.

Higher ABV beers most likely will sell for twice the price of regular beer and are made in smaller batches than their routine cousins. With microbrews already fetching the price of a decent lunch, doubly expensive beers may prove tasty but cost prohibitive.

And whether a drinker can handle his or her beer isn’t a matter of its alcohol content, but of self-moderation, said Duncan, owner of Dingleberry’s (by the way, it’s named after his parrot).

“There’s basically two kinds of drinkers in the world — those concerned about moderation, their safety and other people’s safety and those that are going to drink Brand X until they puke and get in their car and drive home,” he said.

The availability of a Russian Imperial Stout — the biggest, darkest beer of them all, known during Czarist times for its restorative appeal amongst Russian armies and hospitals — isn’t going to do anything, but perhaps encourage the idea that one great beer is better than 12 cheap, watery beers, Duncan said.

“Once you get used to the fact that not all beer tastes really nasty, your tastes are going to change,” Duncan said. “It’s going to make it more difficult for you to grab a pack of Beast Light and be happy with it.”

An additional criticism of the Pop the Cap bill is that it will increase the availability and alcohol content of malt liquor. Technically speaking, malt liquor is a specific type of beer that typically uses corn, rice or dextrose to up the alcohol level and produce a thin, flavorless lager. These malt liquors often are cheaper than regular beer and are sold in 40-ounce bottles.

However, Wilson argues that the few malt liquors not yet available pose no more of a threat than other beverages already out there.

“Surprisingly, the majority of malt liquors are at 6 percent ABV and are currently available in North Carolina,” Wilson said. “A few malt liquors hover in the 6 to 9 percent ABV range, which is nowhere near the 18 to 24 percent ABV of fortified wines sold in convenience stores across our great state.”

The malt liquor issue is the stumbling block for Chad Wood, sales manager for Budweiser of Asheville, which operates a distribution warehouse near Sylva. “I know what people think of most of the time is craft brews,” Wood said. “What they forget about are the high octane malt brews.” Wood recommended limiting Pop the Cap to 12-ounce bottles and kegs, not typically used for malt liquors.

The recommendation could limit some traditional beers such as Kingfisher and Sapporo, often sold in restaurants in 20- to 24-ounce bottles, but might serve to win the support of some Pop the Cap critics.

Coming soon to a bar near you?

Beer drinkers are cautiously optimistic about Pop the Cap’s future, sighting support from the Piedmont and Coastal areas of the state — the bill is sponsored by Rep. Stephen LaRoque (R-Kinston), Rep. Beverly Earle (D-Charlotte), Democratic Whip Rep. Hugh Holliman (D-Lexington) and Rep. Phil Daughtridge (R-Rocky Mount).

Lobbyist Kostrzewa credited the support the bill has garnered to old-fashioned hard work and getting the word out.

“These are beer lovers, not politicos,” Kostrzewa said. “It is the biggest grassroots effort I’ve seen in my nine years of lobbying.”

Currently the bill is in the Senate’s Committee on Commerce. The lobbying group is keeping a color-coded spreadsheet of yeas (green), nays (red) and maybes (yellow) as the voting deadline nears.

“Our spreadsheet has a lot of greens,” Wilson said. “It’s too early to give an exact number, because some of our votes are tentative, and we really need to shore this thing up. That’s our job over the next two weeks.”

Should the bill pass, the state ABC commission expects to see an initial surge in beer licensing as companies work to put new products on the shelves, but it does not anticipate an unfettered boom in the market.

As for the local watering hole, beer lovers can be on the lookout for a new assortment of liquid bread.

“We definitely would start carrying more of the high alcohol beers that are not allowed at the moment,” said the Wineseller’s Kirksey.