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Craft beer lovers could raise a full pint — and take another round “to go” over the counter — under a bill filed this week at the Georgia Legislature, the start of a likely contentious debate over the state’s Prohibition Era ban on in-house sales by local breweries.
Dubbed the "Beer Jobs Bill" by its sponsor, state Sen. Hunter Hill, R-Smyrna, Senate Bill 63 would allow consumers to buy up to 72 ounces of beer to drink "on-premise" and up to 144 ounces to take home. In layman's terms, these are daily limits equivalent to a six-pack and a 12-pack, respectively.
It comes as the Peach State’s craft beer scene has begun to boom, with the state’s 40 or so breweries — nearly double the number it was just a few years ago — saying they would love to make a little extra money that they could then reinvest in their business and the local economy.
“All of our bordering states — Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida — do allow craft brewers limited direct sales to consumers,” Hill said. “We’re one of five states in the entire country that doesn’t,” a list that includes Hawaii, Mississippi, North Dakota and West Virginia.
“Georgia’s craft brewers,” Hill added, “are at a competitive disadvantage compared to their counterparts in the Southeast and the rest of the country.”
The state’s small but growing number of craft brewers already welcome thousands of visitors to their breweries each year for tours and small hand-drawn “samples” of their beer — given away for free after purchase of a souvenir glass.
It’s a work-around, to a degree, that honors Georgia’s “three-tier” system to separate the beer brewer, the wholesaler or distributor who delivers the beer, and then the retail shop, restaurant or bar that sells the beer to customers.
The system came into play as Georgia and the nation emerged from Prohibition, and it aimed to prevent monopolies by national beer manufacturers — the rules, in essence, prevented them from doing it all: making the beer, selling it and delivering it themselves to anyone who wanted.
Wholesalers essentially play the role of middlemen in the state’s regulatory system, and they say any change is “a clear deviation from a regulatory system which works,” said Martin Smith of the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association.
“Incremental changes will only weaken the system to a point of total failure,” leading to a loss of market access and limiting growth, Smith said. “The demand for Georgia beer is strong, and because of this demand and the state’s distribution system, 100 percent of the beer produced in Georgia reaches the consumer.”
Georgia is the fifth-largest beer producer in the country and ranks 18th in craft beer production. But, brewers note, there’s a catch: Only about 2.2 million of the 6.2 million cases of craft beer Georgians drink each year are actually made by Georgia’s craft brewers.
While no one thinks allowing these local breweries to sell their product on-site will somehow double sales, brewers say it gives them a hook to sell their wares.
“As small, independent brewers, we are very, very interested in maintaining an independent distribution tier,” said Nancy Palmer, the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild. “This bill is not an indictment of Georgia wholesalers. This is really about marketing and tourism.”
And money.
“It’s going to add jobs to Georgia,” said Crawford Moran, a co-owner and brew master at 5 Seasons Brewing in Atlanta. “It’s going to add tax revenue, it’s going to add manufacturing jobs.”
“There are 10 million people in Georgia, and we, as citizens of Georgia, our government tells us it’s illegal to buy a beer from a brewer,” Moran said. “I like to buy my food from farmers. I like to buy bread from bakers. You should be allowed to go to a brewery and buy some beer from them. It’s silly.”
Wholesalers will make more money, Moran said, because he thinks the bill would attract more craft brewers to the state. Because craft beer is often more expensive than, say, Budweiser or Miller, wholesalers would benefit, he said.
“The more craft beer that is sold rather than low-margin industrial lager, wholesalers make more money,” Moran said. “As craft brewing sales have increased, wholesaler profits have increased at an incredible rate.”
Those who support SB 63 also point to legislative changes in the past few years that have relaxed state regulations on wine sales (promoted at the time as an agricultural initiative, since grapes are grown at local vineyards) and allowing Sunday alcohol sales.
Smith, however, nixed the comparison.
“We must remember that at the time of the farm winery exemption, these producers were unable to reach the consumer for lack of demand and market access,” Smiths said. “The state has a responsibility to ensure producers can reach the consumer and determined this could be done by allowing direct sales and distribution.”
Beer brewers, however, “have 100 percent market access with strong demand and distribution reaching every retailer in the state,” he said.
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