Legislative Changes in Georgia and Kentucky

Georgia’s Senate Bill 63, more commonly known as the Beer Jobs Bill, passed the state Senate in early April. While many feel its passage is an important incremental step forward, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild stopped short of praising the legislation, which was significantly altered from its original text, noting that the Senate’s revisions “stripped the bill of anything that might tempt a brewery to open in the state of Georgia.”

The original bill would have allowed breweries and brewpubs to sell up to 144 ounces of beer to go and breweries to serve up to 72 ounces for on-site consumption. The revised bill requires breweries to charge for a “tour package” that allows patrons to take home up to 72 ounces of beer “souvenirs.” Additionally, brewpubs can now bottle and can their beer, but are prohibited from selling growlers to go. The bill’s proponents hope to expand these limits when the bill reaches the House.

Meanwhile, Kentucky has banned breweries from self-distributing throughout the state, reversing a 1978 court decision permitting Anheuser-Busch to purchase a Louisville distributorship. The law forces AB InBev to sell or close the two distributorships it now owns in the state.

While the bill is intended to level the playing field among all players in beer, wine and spirits, Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist Brewery launched Riverghost Distributing this past December to distribute their own beer, as well as beer from other small producers, across northern Kentucky. Under the terms of the law, Riverghost would have to close as well.

“We’re young entrepreneurs who took a big leap to grow our small business in a way that was legal at the time,” says Rhinegeist marketing manager Katie Alsip. “It’s a shame that no one could see how this would unfairly affect small business.”

Both Rhinegeist and AB InBev are petitioning lawmakers and evaluating other options for their businesses. ■