Craft Breweries Case Study
House should belly up and pass the craft brewery bill
Imagine you’re visiting Georgia from a different state. One Saturday you and your family tour Reformation Brewery in Woodstock. You have a few pints and enjoy the beer enough that you want to take some to friends back home - but the bartender tells you nope, you’ll have to go find it at a grocery or liquor store down the street even though it’s brewed in the same building. Confusion from tourists about Georgia’s archaic craft brewery law that prohibits direct retail sales on site is just one of the system’s many problems – but SB85, which recently passed the Senate and awaits House approval, would level the playing field, encourage craft breweries to locate and flourish in Georgia, and stimulate the economy through job creation, tourism and direct spending. Georgia’s current policy is what’s called a “three-tiered system” made up of the beer producers, the distributors and the retailers. It’s a holdover from the prohibition-era, enacted to protect the customer and discourage abuse of power, but it’s outdated and heavy-handed government …show more content…
at its worst. Under this system alcohol has to go through a wholesaler and then a retailer before it can be bought by the public. The Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association has fought hard to keep it this way. All states but Georgia and Mississippi have made common sense revisions that protects the customer, but at the same time encourages growth within the industry.
According to the most recent data from the Brewers Association, Georgia produces 365,015 barrels of beer a year, which ranks the state 48th in breweries per capita and 41st in economic impact per capita. This isn’t good enough. Georgia is missing out on craft beer as an economic driver for our local communities and our state at large. Wineries have become a tourist destination in north Georgia. We’ve got two in Pickens County alone. They can sell their wine on site, why can’t breweries sell their beer?
The industry has exploded in the last decade, even under Georgia’s oppressive regulations.
Since 2011 the number of breweries in the state has doubled. If you look at the 40-plus breweries currently operating in Georgia (Florida and North Carolina have over 150; Oregon, 228 Colorado has 284), all but a handful were founded after 2010. The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is also tracking over 10 businesses that intend to open in 2017. Unlike 10 years ago, you can go to your local convenience store and get Red Hare, brewed in Marietta, and beers from Orpheus Brewery out of Atlanta – but the way regulations are set up brewers only make pennies on the dollar through these kinds of retail sales. The real money comes through tasting room and direct sales at the brewery and our laws keep potential breweries from locating here and keep the ones that are here hogtied and slow
growing.
Carly Wiggins, president of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild and Marketing and Sales Director at Southbound Brewing Company in Savannah, Ga, told one publication, “Breweries in Georgia take an average of five years to break even. Our surrounding states are 2.5 times more profitable. We employ only 1,500 people in our industry. Colorado with a similar drinking population and significantly more advanced beer laws employs ten times that. Breweries in surrounding states use the funds from their tastings rooms to expand, hire additional sales force members, create more unique beers, etc. The overflow of growth benefits everyone down the line.”
Last week we featured a story about jobs created through the burgeoning movie industry in Georgia --- people can get work as extras or on production, not to mention the billions created through direct spending. This surge in movie production was a direct result of state incentives. The craft brewery bill doesn’t cost taxpayers anything but could have just as much of an economic impact. Lawmakers, let’s stop perpetuating the idea that Georgia and the south move slower than the rest of the country. Pass SB85 and let our small craft breweries thrive and support the economy.
Imagine you’re visiting Georgia from a different state. One Saturday you and your family tour Reformation Brewery in Woodstock. You have a few pints and enjoy the beer enough that you want to take some to friends back home - but the bartender tells you nope, you’ll have to go find it at a grocery or liquor store down the street even though it’s brewed in the same building. Confusion from tourists about Georgia’s archaic craft brewery law that prohibits direct retail sales on site is just one of the system’s many problems – but SB85, which recently passed the Senate and awaits House approval, would level the playing field, encourage craft breweries to locate and flourish in Georgia, and stimulate the economy through job creation, tourism and direct spending. Georgia’s current policy is what’s called a “three-tiered system” made up of the beer producers, the distributors and the retailers. It’s a holdover from the prohibition-era, enacted to protect the customer and discourage abuse of power, but it’s outdated and heavy-handed government …show more content…
at its worst. Under this system alcohol has to go through a wholesaler and then a retailer before it can be bought by the public. The Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association has fought hard to keep it this way. All states but Georgia and Mississippi have made common sense revisions that protects the customer, but at the same time encourages growth within the industry.
According to the most recent data from the Brewers Association, Georgia produces 365,015 barrels of beer a year, which ranks the state 48th in breweries per capita and 41st in economic impact per capita. This isn’t good enough. Georgia is missing out on craft beer as an economic driver for our local communities and our state at large. Wineries have become a tourist destination in north Georgia. We’ve got two in Pickens County alone. They can sell their wine on site, why can’t breweries sell their beer?
The industry has exploded in the last decade, even under Georgia’s oppressive regulations.
Since 2011 the number of breweries in the state has doubled. If you look at the 40-plus breweries currently operating in Georgia (Florida and North Carolina have over 150; Oregon, 228 Colorado has 284), all but a handful were founded after 2010. The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is also tracking over 10 businesses that intend to open in 2017. Unlike 10 years ago, you can go to your local convenience store and get Red Hare, brewed in Marietta, and beers from Orpheus Brewery out of Atlanta – but the way regulations are set up brewers only make pennies on the dollar through these kinds of retail sales. The real money comes through tasting room and direct sales at the brewery and our laws keep potential breweries from locating here and keep the ones that are here hogtied and slow
growing.
Carly Wiggins, president of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild and Marketing and Sales Director at Southbound Brewing Company in Savannah, Ga, told one publication, “Breweries in Georgia take an average of five years to break even. Our surrounding states are 2.5 times more profitable. We employ only 1,500 people in our industry. Colorado with a similar drinking population and significantly more advanced beer laws employs ten times that. Breweries in surrounding states use the funds from their tastings rooms to expand, hire additional sales force members, create more unique beers, etc. The overflow of growth benefits everyone down the line.”
Last week we featured a story about jobs created through the burgeoning movie industry in Georgia --- people can get work as extras or on production, not to mention the billions created through direct spending. This surge in movie production was a direct result of state incentives. The craft brewery bill doesn’t cost taxpayers anything but could have just as much of an economic impact. Lawmakers, let’s stop perpetuating the idea that Georgia and the south move slower than the rest of the country. Pass SB85 and let our small craft breweries thrive and support the economy.