Virginia BAs--please advocate for SB604

SB 604 has passed the Senate and in the House of Delegates ABC/Gaming subcommittee of the "General Laws Committee. This bill will allow breweries to sell, for on-premise consumption, without the requirement of a restaurant. For more info, here's a Brewer's Association release which includes links to the text of the bill and a place to search for your delegate.

http://maildogmanager.com/page.html...Ha3EsgPW4=&[email protected]

 

UPDATE: this has now passed the Senate and the House of Delegates unanimously, with an amendment in the House to clarify that the beer to be sold by a brewery for on premise consumption is limited to "brands owned by the brewery" (the original version just said "beer"), so I guess the next step is conference committee to conform the two bills as passed and then to the Governor for signature.Those more familiar w/ VA legislative procedure feel free to chime in.

This is GOOD news! Especially for nanos and other small start-ups who don't want to be in the restaurant business but also fear getting exposure to the public given Virginia's strict 3 tier; before this, would have to convince a distributor to take them on or rely entirely on off-premise sales at the brewery, a hard way to go. It's a testament to people like the folks at Wolf Hills in Abingdon or Blue Lab in Lex that they've made a go under the existing framework; this should ease their buiden dramatically. Not to mention attract new capital...