Craft Breweries Case Study

House should belly up and pass the craft brewery bill

Imagine you’re visiting Georgia from a different state. One Saturday you and your family tour Reformation Brewery in Woodstock. You have a few pints and enjoy the beer enough that you want to take some to friends back home - but the bartender tells you nope, you’ll have to go find it at a grocery or liquor store down the street even though it’s brewed in the same building. Confusion from tourists about Georgia’s archaic craft brewery law that prohibits direct retail sales on site is just one of the system’s many problems – but SB85, which recently passed the Senate and awaits House approval, would level the playing field, encourage craft breweries to locate and flourish in Georgia, and stimulate the economy through job creation, tourism and direct spending. Georgia’s current policy is what’s called a “three-tiered system” made up of the beer producers, the distributors and the retailers. It’s a holdover from the prohibition-era, enacted to protect the customer and discourage abuse of power, but it’s outdated and heavy-handed government
Since 2011 the number of breweries in the state has doubled. If you look at the 40-plus breweries currently operating in Georgia (Florida and North Carolina have over 150; Oregon, 228 Colorado has 284), all but a handful were founded after 2010. The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is also tracking over 10 businesses that intend to open in 2017. Unlike 10 years ago, you can go to your local convenience store and get Red Hare, brewed in Marietta, and beers from Orpheus Brewery out of Atlanta – but the way regulations are set up brewers only make pennies on the dollar through these kinds of retail sales. The real money comes through tasting room and direct sales at the brewery and our laws keep potential breweries from locating here and keep the ones that are here hogtied and slow