Officials with the Department of Revenue met with representatives of the powerful beer wholesalers lobby and gave the state's major distributor group advance notice that it would issue a controversial new regulation in September, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Emails and agency records the AJC acquired through an Open Records Act request show that while top-ranking Revenue staff met regularly with representatives of the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association, they blew off requests from the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild for similar access.
Lawmakers this year made it legal for brewers to sell tours to consumers, who could then take home a limited amount of beer as a souvenir. The Department of Revenue issued a first set of regulations in late June that made it legal for those tours to have different prices. The law took effect on July 1, and many brewers began offering tours with various prices depending on the kind or amount of souvenir suds.
Records show the wholesalers told Revenue officials they opposed allowing those kinds of tours. On Sept. 25, the agency released a new rule, called a bulletin, that said tours can have different prices, but cannot be based on the amount or value of the beer. Agency emails show that a lobbyist for the wholesalers knew the bulletin was coming more than a week before it was issued.
The brewers say they were blindsided by the bulletin and do not understand why Revenue would bow to the wishes of the wholesalers, who are not affected by the new rule.
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