Georgia craft brewers want fewer regulations to keep ales flowing
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Georgia craft beer industry leaders want state lawmakers to blow the dust off the nearly 100-year-old rules governing beer distribution to help breweries stay afloat.
Why it matters: Industry reps say Georgia's "three-tier system" requiring brewers to pay distributors to move their products to restaurants, liquor stores and other shops is a regulatory burden and some updates are overdue.
State of play: Eventide, Elsewhere and Best End Brewing are among the roughly 15 Georgia craft breweries that closed their doors in 2024.
- Changing consumer tastes and rising costs play a role, Joseph Cortes of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild told Axios.
Driving the news: Bipartisan legislation sponsored by state Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) would allow craft brewers to "self-distribute" up to 3,000 barrels of beer a year to retailers and other breweries and brewpubs, bypassing the framework (PDF) Georgia created after the repeal of Prohibition.
- That's nothing compared to surrounding states like North Carolina, which allow breweries to self-distribute up to 50,000 barrels, Cortes said.
Yes, and: Craft brewers are also asking for permission to give away their beer to nonprofits and charities.
- Currently, Cortes said, breweries often have to schedule donation deliveries through distributors and pay delivery fees.
Plus: Breweries also want to eliminate the daily cap on to-go sales, another revenue source.
- Currently, they can only sell 288 ounces of malt beverages per individual a day, or 6,000 barrels in aggregate a year.
The other side: Wholesalers say the system protects consumers and the industry, and that the legislation potentially applies to some major national and regional brands, not just craft brewers.
- "As in all mature business environments, some businesses will fail," Delivering for Georgia, a wholesalers' lobbying association, said in a statement last week in response to the legislation.
- "We are sympathetic to craft brewers, but we cannot pass new legislation each time a brewery closes."
What's next: The legislation awaits a hearing in the Senate's regulated industries and oversight committee.