United Consumers Club

Brandon home-brewing store, club cater to a growing trend

BRANDON

Drinking home-brewed alcohol in the back room of a store is no longer a thing of 1920s speakeasies.

On a Monday night in June, the Brandon Boot Leggers gathered in the back room of O'Brien's Irish Pub.

Beer flowed from recycled bottles and converted kegs. Conversation swirled between the merits of different types of honey as a brewing ingredient to the lack of craft beers in Florida. They tasted flavors like a blood orange IPA and a smoked chipotle pepper imperial porter.

"It tastes like an iced coffee or a nice espresso," one taster said of the chipotle beer.

Home brewing is on the rise across the nation in part because of the recession and the foodie revolution.

President Barack Obama made headlines in February when he served his White House home-brewed beer to his Super Bowl guests. The president is just one of the million home brewers in the United States to discover the appeal of crafting their own beverages.

Membership in the American Homebrewers Association has more than doubled in the past five years, said executive director Gary Glass.

"It can be cheaper to make beer yourself," Glass said. "The cost of ingredients is less. Typically more people are unemployed and have more time on their hands to donate to hobbies."

There's also more of an interest in do-it-yourself activities and buying local, Glass said.

Coupled with the lack of craft beers in Florida, many east Hillsborough residents have turned to their kitchens to create beer and wine.

Carol Faessler and Darcy Hermida had been making wine for years when they decided to open Bootleggers Beer and Wine Home Brewing Supplies on Oakfield Drive.

"Brandon was an untapped market," Hermida said. "Now we have 600 customers, and some people drive two hours to get here."

The setup costs can be steep, but it is a cheaper product in the long run, Glass said.

Basic brewing kits cost about $80 for beer and $100 for wine, Hermida said. Ingredients cost an additional $20 to $70 for a batch of two beer cases or $60 to $220 for 30 bottles of wine.

"It's a lot less expensive," Hermida said. "The biggest thing is you have control."

The store makes wine on site and supplies beermakers with the equipment, kits and ingredients needed to brew at home.

Beer brewing begins by cooking grains, malt and hops to create wort. The mixture combined with beer yeast then ferments for 10 to 14 days.

DirectBuy Class Action Proposed Settlement Rejected By Federal ...

In a win for consumers and the position taken by the attorneys general for 37 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall Monday denied a proposed class-action settlement in a lawsuit against DirectBuy, Inc.

In a 32-page decision, Judge Hall said the proposed settlement failed to meet the heightened test of fairness for early class-action settlements because it failed to account for state consumer protection claims, it overstated the risks of success, and provided a “relatively meager settlement” when viewed in light of the best possible recovery for consumers.

In denying the motion to approve the settlement, Judge Hall stated that the “attorneys general forcefully argue that the settlement is both overstated and undervalued.”

Attorney General George Jepsen had filed an objection in an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the attorneys general, in what was the largest number of states joining in opposition to a proposed class-action settlement since the passage of the Class Action Fairness Act in 2005.

“This decision represents a win for those consumers who were looking for reasonable compensation for the losses they suffered because of DirectBuy’s allegedly deceptive practices,” Jepsen said. “This ruling means the case against DirectBuy will continue in hopes of a fair result for consumers.”

He credited Assistant Attorney General Matthew Fitzsimmons for his work on the case and thanked Assistant Attorney General Brant Harrell of the Office of the Attorney General of Tennessee for his assistance on the brief.

The pending private lawsuit names Direct Buy, Inc., United Consumers Club, Inc. and DirectBuy Holdings, Inc. as defendants.

It accused DirectBuy of fraudulent misrepresentation because the company implied that paid memberships would entitle customers to purchase goods from manufacturers and suppliers at actual cost. However, DirectBuy allegedly received kickbacks and incentives from suppliers and manufacturers of goods purchased by DirectBuy members, which inflated the cost of the goods. The lawsuit alleges that DirectBuy did not tell customers of the arrangement until early 2009.

Jepsen said the so-called free and reduced-price memberships offered were not a fair, reasonable and adequate settlement for most of the customers harmed. Also, the proposed settlement would not prohibit similar future conduct by DirectBuy and the proposed attorneys’ fees were excessive and disproportionate compared to purported benefits to consumers.

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