Comments on: Brewery & Brewpub Legislation: Are You Aware?

By: lee

lee — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:27:06 +0000

i think the issue of portion control is not one of a “let’s go get fucked at the local brew tour,” rather, it is trying to regulate liquor license(s). So you spend $7.00 to sample a few beers that equal a couple of pints, the business you are at does not carry such a license that the pub down the street has, a license that said pub pays a ridiculous amount of money for.
This is the reason why many vineyards in CA have a wine bar seperate from the tasing room.

By: David Berg

David Berg — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:44:20 +0000

Jeff B–you just illustrated the problem with trying to overdefine something–you’ll always miss a case. A similar problem exists with defining growlers as 64 fl oz. It really should read up to 64 fl oz. Lord help us if growlers switch to metric sometime.

And you are correct in stating it gets brought up by different people every year. The entire section is becoming a mess and needs a rewrite. It’s like a piece of software that you try to add one more feature to that wasn’t in the original design; sometimes you can find a place that works, and sometimes you shoe horn it in regardless only to find you cause more problems than you solve.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:46:00 +0000

Whoops. My bad. I mis-read what you wrote and thought you were stating that 750ml bottles that could be capped with a crown don’t exist. Sorry about that.

To me, this seems like a good example of why the language in this bill could use a little help from a few professionals in the brewing industry in Minnesota.

By: Jeff B.

Jeff B. — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:10:01 +0000

If a bottle cap is a: “twist-type closure, cork, stopper, or plug”, never mind. If it is not, then the bill you linked does not allow a bottle with only a bottle cap. I’m just going by the text of the bill.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:23:29 +0000

Actually, there are 750ml bottles that can be capped with a standard crown cap. There are also 750ml bottles that use a larger, non-standard crown cap. It is correct, though, that some styles would need to be caged & corked like a champagne bottle. It really depends on the bottle.

‘d like to see the sample provision struck from the bill. I just don’t see it as necessary. Breweries that provide samples on their tours in Minnesota are all very responsible. Sample time at local breweries is far from a bar environment. It just seems a little unnecessary to me.

By: Jeff B.

Jeff B. — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 02:53:07 +0000

Random notes:

Those 750 ml bottles can’t only be capped.

The 100 ml brewery limitation was in a bill last year here: http://www.dps.state.mn.us/alcgamb/alcgamb/SF%20171.pdf
but it seems to have been removed but I can’t tell why.

The 100 ml provision was in the bill the year before, too.

Each year the bill seems to have been offered by different people.

By: David Berg

David Berg — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:21:38 +0000

Yep, never assume the people writing the laws know what they state in the first place. There was previously no provision for breweries giving out samples (the 100 ml thing was for retailers). So, whomever came up with this bill has just limited his serving size to 100 ml, when in fact there was nothing prohibiting it from the beginning. The whole thing is messy. Wish they would have talked to someone first.