Could Downtown AGS get a Brewpub?

@jennanmartin suggests that it might just happen...maybe.   

DDA board gives support for brewpubs
By Jenna Martin
Staff Writer
Thursday, March 12, 2015

Downtown Augusta, like other cities across Georgia, is missing out on the economic boon seen from the craft brewery industry.  By signing a resolution Thursday in support of state legislation to open up retail avenues for Georgia microbreweries and brewpubs, the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta hopes to attract one.

“They are very popular,” DDA Executive Director Margaret Woodard said. “They’re great for tourism. They’re great for downtown businesses. They’re a good draw.”

So we shall see.  So many good things could happen in Downtown Augusta if the bureaucracy and political infighting would just get out of the way.  Support is one thing, a good thing, but I am sure there are a bunch more hurdles for someone to jump over before this dream might happen...

GA Politics v. #GABeer, Round 1

Greased Palms take Rnd 1 w/a TKO.  @austinlouisray from @ctl_atlanta & @EWErickson bring the details:  

Decimated Beer Jobs Bill passes through Regulated Industries

After an eventful week at the Gold Dome, both sides of the Beer Jobs Bill fight convened once again in Room 310 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building Friday morning for a second hearing and voted in favor of Senate Bill 63, albeit a drastically altered version of the original bill designed to loosen the state's three-tier beer distribution laws for Georgia brewpubs and breweries.

The new version of SB 63, a committee sub (basically, a last-minute substitution for the original bill) proposed by Regulated Industries Chairman/State Sen. Rick Jeffares (R-McDonough), allows for no direct sales for breweries. Instead, it alters the current tour structure so that brewers can give away 36 ounces on-premises during the tour (compared to the current 32 ounces) as well as a "souvenir" malt beverage container of no more than 64 ounces to-go. In other words, what was originally a bill allowing direct sales has been reduced to a bill that expands on the current "free beer" tour structure, except that breweries would be able to charge various rates for tours (they sold glasses before, into which they poured the free beer) depending on how much beer is consumed by attendees.

As for brewpubs, they'll no longer be limited to draft-only production. In addition to bottle and can production, the new SB 63 allows for a growler provision similar to 2014's Senate Study Committee report. In short, consumers who buy a meal at a brewpub could also buy a growler with the meal, then take home the remainder of the growler that they don't drink with their food.

The only thing likable in this bill is that Brewpubs may now bottle and can their brews.  Though it validates the idiotic brewpub growler provision that says one has to drink some of the growler before going home....

Erickson provides some outlet for your apoplectic rage displeasure should you choose to do so (nicely please...).

They Gutted the Beer Jobs Bill

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee in Georgia has gutted S.B.63, the beer jobs bill. Breweries will continue to be prohibited from making direct sales to customers. Now, you’ll have to buy a tour and, in the price, be able to pay extra for no more than 64oz. of beer in a single container.

This is ridiculous. So many of these guys got major contributions from beer wholesalers and they are listening to them and not the voters.

Clearly we need a change in tactic. Try these phone numbers. They are their in-district office numbers. They won’t listen at the Capitol. Make them listen in their offices back home.

Tell them how angry you are that they gutted S.B.63. And then go find someone to challenge them in a primary.

Name                   District Number
Rick Jeffares       (678) 432-7676
Frank Ginn         (706) 680-4466
Joshua McKoon  (706) 442-9130
Ed Harbison        (404) 656-0074
David Shafer       (404) 497-0048
Renee Unterman (404) 463-1368
Brandon Beach   (678) 640-1811
Bill Cowsert        (706) 543-7700
Steve Gooch        (404) 656-9221
Steve Henson       (404) 243-5107
Jack Hill              (912) 557-3811
David Lucas        (478) 254-7600
Butch Miller        (678) 989-5301
Jeff Mullis           (706) 375-1776

While this may seem like a loss, perhaps there is some optimism to be had.  Ray points out that this is not the end of the line, for this bill or future ones...

"No matter how silly it may seem, the main thing is to get a bill passed," GCBG president and co-founder/president of Terrapin Beer Company, John Cochran, says. "Any bill. And we are thankful to the committee for doing that. We will work on improving this bill when we go to the House side. There really is a long way to go."

Get Out of the Way!

Here is why #SB63 should become law!

Get out of the way of brewers
KYLE WINGFIELD

Help small business. Get government out of the way. Unleash the free market. Encourage entrepreneurs. Grow jobs. Make Georgia more competitive.

Do you really need to hear any more?  Well, go read the whole thing anyway...

Craft Brew-volution in Georgia?

Help @GaBrewersGuild & call your Senator to support this bill! #GAbeer

Beer Jobs Bill On Tap in Georgia

A Georgia lawmaker has filed a bill in the state Senate that aims to repeal a number of Prohibition-era regulations that brewers have said are overly burdensome and restrictive.
 
The Beer Jobs Bill, as its dubbed, would allow for breweries to sell up to 72 ounces of beer per person for on-premise consumption and up to 144 ounces of packaged product to go. Currently, breweries are expressly prohibited from selling direct to consumers for both on- and off-premise consumption, though they can give away free samples. Likewise, brewpubs would be granted the right to sell beer for off-premise consumption under the same quantity limitations, should the bill pass as written.

 It couldn't come soon enough!  Though it currently would change craft beer availability here in Augusta, since we have no breweries or brewpubs....

Georgia Beer Rising - Part 2

@GeorgiaTrend has a nice comprehensive overview of #GAbeer and its obstacles.

"According to the Beer Institute, Georgia’s brewing industry generated $3.5 billion in direct economic impact in 2012. That number includes breweries, distributors and retail sales. $1.9 billion of that number was generated by breweries alone. It sounds like a lot, but when you compare that to other states, some of which have three times as many breweries within their state lines, Georgia’s craft brew industry is still in the fermentation stage. Colorado’s beer scene, for instance, is an economic powerhouse, generating $14.8 billion in economic impact. Closer to home, North Carolina sees $7.1 billion in total economic impact."

The underlying tenor of the article is a positive one for those who want to change the current state laws that hamper micro and craft brewers.  By going straight to the source of Georgia's craft beer advocacy, the message of "change" gets some much needed highlighting.

“Georgia is way, way, way behind the rest of the country when it comes to craft beer,” says Pinkerton, who is also president of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild. “All these new companies are starting up. They’re very small, and the barrier to entry is still really challenging in Georgia. Everywhere else in the country, you see their growth and you compare it to Georgia’s growth, you can really only point to one thing.”

No one is further out on the bleeding edge of trying to reduce those barrier of entry that then Georgia Craft Brewers Guild.  If you want to see this as well, I suggest you pop on over and become a member.

But perhaps the best part of the article was the statement of one big depressing fact...

“There are more breweries in the city of Asheville, North Carolina, alone than there are in the state of Georgia,” Pinkerton says. “Let that sink in for a second. More breweries in one rural small town in North Carolina than there are in the entire state of Georgia. What does that tell you?”

“Georgia has one of the most restrictive laws pertaining to microbrewing in the whole nation at this point,” says Freddy Bensch co-founder and “Big Kahuna” of SweetWater Brewing. “Everyone else seems to be embracing it and is proactive in trying to bring in new breweries and helping their breweries expand. But Georgia seems to be sort of lagging and stuck behind.”

Now, if only politicians in Atlanta would listen to reason...

Beer & Politics Can Mix

@BillsandBrews shows us how with an interesting new vodcast. Love @RepPeterDeFazio here despite his political proclivities.

Hopefully future vodcast episodes will focus on state and regional issues when it comes to craft and homebrewing.