Yesterday, we reported some news of a bill that would allow for brewpubs to sell their beer to wholesalers. Today we’ve learned that Barley John’s, Boathouse, Fitger’s Brewhouse and Town Hall have all lent their support for said bill (SF1013 and HF1276).
From Tim Nelson, owner of Fitger’s Brewhouse: “The bill is critical for Minnesota Brewpub owners and employees as they strive to grow along with counterparts throughout the United States.”
As many of you know, our laws are certainly not as lenient as some of our surrounding states with regards to brewpubs… brewpubs in Wisconsin can serve on site and also bottle and distribute beer in Minnesota while Minnesota brewpubs can not legally bottle and distribute their beer (aside from on-site, in growlers).
“Minnesota’s current law’s run counter to our state’s interests. It doesn’t make sense to shackle our own breweries in a way that other states do not. We simply want the opportunity to compete, it can only benefit everyone in our state through increased job growth, improved tax revenues and a richer regional culture.”
Hope whoever is heading up the push for this cause helps to let everyone know what we can to do help and when.
Some current brewpub owner/operator must be spearheading this bill, right? or Maybe just a rep. with beer drinkers/brewers interests in mind.
I’ve seen letters from Pete at Town Hall, Tim at Fitger’s, John from Barley John’s and the Boathouse crew (name slips me). It sounds like these four brewpubs are spearheading it, though Fitger’s may be leading the push.
To bad they couldn’t of coordinated this with the Surly push in order to present a united front. Strength in numbers….
I think there’s a much greater chance of getting shot down if they tried to roll it into a single bill. It’d make it much easier for those that don’t want to see these things to happen to concentrate their attack on a single push. Rather than now making them deal with things coming from multiple angles.
Ben, I hope you are correct.
I don’t see any reason this bill shouldn’t pass. When progression emerges in the beer, wine and spirits industry we tend to find dated prohibition era laws that were put in place and have had no attention since then. Let’s make things happen!
FYI Ben and others: The bill (SF 1013) is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tues, April 5th at 10:30am in Room 123 at the State Capitol. (See Senate Schedules here: http://www.senate.mn/schedule/schedule.php?date=4/1/2011&type=monthly&ls=87#header).
Everyone should contact as many Commerce Committee members as possible to encourage them to vote in favor of this bill. (See list of commerce members here: http://www.senate.mn/committees/committee_bio.php?cmte_id=1024&ls=)