Help Craft Beer Grow in NJ

Strength in numbers!

 

Anyone know of any legislation being proposed to make it easier for liquor stores to acquire Growler stations?

 

IIRC when they built the new Total Wines in RiverEdge I asked about a growler station, they stated that the cost & hassle of the local town laws just didnt make it worthwhile

 

The way I understand it, only liquor stores with PLENARY RETAIL CONSUMPTION LICENSE WITH “BROAD PACKAGE PRIVILEGE” (“32”) licenses can sell growlers, liquor stores with PLENARY RETAIL DISTRIBUTION LICENSE (“44”) cannot - since, by definition, they can sell "...only...alcoholic beverages in original containers...".

See pages 43-44 of the NJ ABC Handbook.

 

Supported with my info!

 

Done and shared. Cheers!

 

I wonder if we will ever get an update on whether NJ residents can purchase alcohol online and have it shipped to their home. It has been "Update pending" for a few years now.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/abc/faqs.html#8

 

you can buy wine i know that, not sure about beer.

 

So what bills are you asking me to support?
A generic "Help support craft breweries in NJ" is simply spitting in the wind

 

A "33" license can also sell growler fills

 

Ok. I'm pretty dumb
I didn't scroll down far enough.
Done and tweeted out to my ravenous Twitter followers

 

Yes, but that is primarily an on-premise license for bars and restaurants, with off-premise cans and bottles purchases limited: "package goods....may only take place from the public barroom, and the package goods may only be displayed for sale on its perimeter walls" and the poster I was replying to asked specifically about growler stations and "liquor stores".

I gotta admit I was surprised at how many liquor stores in NJ have the "34" license (w/"broad package privilege" - on- and off-premise) since so few of them had been operating bars - the old " 'Bilow' type liquor stores w/small bar" businesses seemed to disappearing. Are there many/any "off-premise" liquor stores operating on the more limited "33" license?

 

"Thousands"? That sure sounds high, given the size of most of those NJ "craft" breweries - since the largest, Flying Fish, is only around 22k bbl./yr. and the only one that's reached "regional" (15k bbl-up) status - all the rest are "microbreweries" - under 15k bbl.

The Beer Institute's New Jersey Economic Impact page lists only 729 actual "Brewing" jobs in the entire state, and that obviously includes AB's multimillion barrel Newark brewery (which just eliminated 60 jobs when they stopped bottling). Obviously, brewpubs employ more people in "restaurant" types of jobs than a brewery of similar barrelage, but "thousands" still sounds high to me.

 

Sent

 

Not that any of this stuff is not worthy of pursuit, but what we really need now in NJ is a tiered license system, so brewpubs don't need to hold a full liquor license just to serve beer (and maybe wine or cider). Small indie brewpubs, like Tired Hands, Forest & Main, Earth, Crime & Pinishment, the Vault, etc. can't exist in NJ without this, the cost of a full liquor license is too prohibitive. The current all-or-nothing, license-as-property system is utterly absurd.

 

man would i like to be able to design a sandwich for each of the beers we serve day to day, and make it, and serve it. all steps to make Jersey laws even the smallest amount more sensible are good. thank you all for doing this and please keep in contact with your legislators and let them know you care that it not be harder in NJ than other places to just craft some flavors and share them with the community.

 

and most of us would love to be able to munch on one of those sandwiches while enjoying a pint of Boat at your place.
I guess for now that scenario is only in our dreams.