CURRENTLY SERVING:

How else to explain raids on Resurrection Ale House, Local 44 and Memphis Taproom that occurred last Thursday? In simultaneous raids by state police that sought to flush out, prohibition style, “unregistered” beers, all three bars saw thousands’ worth of kegs and bottles confiscated. One problem: Many of them were in fact registered with the PLCB — they just weren’t annotated properly on the PLCB books. Oh, and another problem: All three bars raided belonged to Leigh Maida and Brendan Hartranft, which seems fishy as hell — the basis for the raids was a tip from a concerned citizen, never minding that the kinds of craft beers served at Resurrection/Local 44/Memphis Taproom are available in brew pubs all over the area. For their part, Maida and Hartranft are fighting back — providing the state with documentation on the beers they believe they were selling perfectly legally, and saying that they’re the victims of an inept system that is archaic at best and anti-business and anti-tax revenue at worst. And since we’ve all been under the thumb of the PLCB since forever, who would disagree?