The board has been reset in the battle between Georgia’s beer wholesalers and craft brewers, with a deal being reached Tuesday that essentially reverts the rules for breweries to the way they were in July before the Department of Revenue stepped in. That action, which scrapped the rule allowing breweries to offer different levels/prices of tours in exchange for giving different beers away, infuriated the state’s breweries and sparked the debate that led to this yesterday’s deal.
The new rules, per the Department of Revenue, are as follows:
- Allow brewers again to sell brewery tours at variable prices based on the kind of beer offered.
- Allow special events at breweries and distilleries.
- Let brewers, distilleries and wholesalers use social media to alert the public about where to buy their products or advertise special events.
- Allow third parties to sell tour tickets.
- Let breweries and distilleries sell food on site.
The only new additions to the above are to allow the use of social media to promote and advertise their wares, (why was this ever barred?) and to allow for breweries and distilleries to sell food on site. Why they are allowed to sell food but not their actual product, and instead have to leap through loopholes of giving it away alongside ‘variably priced tours’ is mind boggling, and the single reason why the Georgia Craft Brewers are so unhappy with the settlement. It seems to be another instance of a, (wide) majority Republican state legislature failing to embrace the principles of deregulation and free enterprise that made them so popular in the first place.
That being said, the agreement reached does allow for more freedom from breweries and distilleries for the rest of the year. Expect the issue to re-emerge in 2017 when the session should be more action-packed after an election year where it’s looking like not a whole lot of note will get done under the Gold Dome.
