Georgia breweries renew push to relax state restrictions
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The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is reigniting its push to relax restrictions on how breweries sell their products.
Driving the news: The Guild this week launched a public petition urging legislators to support a bill that would allow what the organization touts as "Fair and Open Access to Market."
Why it matters: Loosening state restrictions could help breweries gain more control over how their beer is distributed, which could potentially help them remain in business, the association argues.
How it works: Currently, Georgia law requires small, local breweries to sell their products to wholesalers, who then sell the beer to retailers, such as grocery stores and restaurants.
- These wholesalers can determine the price for the beer and how much they want to promote it, state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler told Axios.
- The Rome Republican earlier this year introduced Senate Bill 163, which would allow brewers to sell their products directly to retailers within a 100-mile radius of their brewery.
- Brewers would also be allowed to sell and ship beer to other licensed breweries and brew pubs and receive shipments of beer produced by other pubs and manufacturers.
- And it would lift a cap on how much beer brewers can sell for off-premise consumption.
What they're saying: Hufstetler told Axios that the current laws are hurting small businesses in Georgia.
- "These guys are not asking for a handout or a tax credit," he said. "They just want to be able to sell their product in a free market."
State of play: Guild Executive Director Joseph Cortes told Axios this week that seven breweries have closed across Georgia this year, including. Second Self Beer Company, Orpheus Brewing and Burnt Hickory Brewing.
- Last week Pontoon Brewing Company announced on Instagram that its last day operating its Sandy Springs and Tucker taprooms will be Oct. 28.
- The company said it's closing because its main distribution partners did not pay them for their product and that they hope the closure will be temporary.
The bottom line: Cortes, who said the Guild has a little more than 170 members, said relaxing the laws will help small businesses that have become "hubs of community and anchors of development."
- "They really are, I think, an essential part of the fabric of these communities, big and small, across the state," he said. "So when one closes, it matters … because that also represents a loss of jobs."