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
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."
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