American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
Not even 2 weeks into the New Year and another shot was fired across the bow of Florida’s craft brewers….and this shot is a lot bigger than a 64 oz. growler issue. Our tasting rooms, the lifeblood of Florida breweries, are now under attack…Welcome to 2015!
We’ve written quite a bit in the past about the legislation that was passed by the Florida Senate last year dubbed the Growler Bill. You can brush up on that bout of big beer political cronyism here and here. But in a nutshell, in order to get the ban on 64 oz. growlers lifted, the bill was packed full of debilitating regulations – including a 2,000-barrel limit on how much a brewery can sell to the public before having to sell the beer to a distributor and buy it back before it could be sold in their taprooms. Thankfully, the Florida House of Representatives saw the bill for what it was – an absolute flaming pile of crap – and refused to even consider the sister bill.
So when the Florida Beer Wholesalers, an association made up of Anheuser-Busch beer distributors, announced in December that it wouldn’t oppose the bill strictly seeking to end the state’s decades-old ban on growlers, the craft beer community was circumspect, at best. We didn’t have to wait long to be proven right.
“On Friday, January 9, the Florida Retail Federation filed a petition for rule-making on behalf of the Retail Beverage Council in order to ensure clear guidelines are established for a specific type of beverage license administered through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. It is a priority of RBC to protect the Florida alcohol licensing system, which is in the best interest of the retailer and consumer. Currently, the state of Florida is issuing licenses to breweries with tasting rooms based on the tourism exception, which was initially created solely for attraction venues and amusement parks, locations that contribute significantly through job creation, tax dollars, and travel spending. We are asking the Department to clarify their requirements for the tourism-related alcohol license based on the changing marketplace.”
In other words, the Florida Retail Federation is suing the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and is being joined by Florida Beer Wholesalers as well as the Florida Independent Spirits Association. FISA includes the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits chain, as well as several other Florida retail liquor stores. This original law was put into effect for Anheuser-Busch decades ago when they owned Busch Gardens and Sea World and wanted to brew and sell their “beer type product” in the parks. Now that AB no longer owns the parks, they are challenging the law that was written for them, citing “that breweries do not boon tourism.”
If we had to venture a guess as to how much money every ACB correspondent and reader has spent in 2014 on beercations, we could have probably purchased a small island. The idea that Florida’s breweries are not boosting tourism is, like just about everything else about how Florida handles small business, shameful.
These retailers and distributors are asking the state to stop issuing new licenses to breweries allowing on-site sales. And no one in the Florida Craft Beer industry thinks that they are going to stop there. If they succeed, the tasting room licenses of every craft beer brewery will be in jeopardy.
Breweries are starting to fight back. Gregg Rapp of Rapp Brewing Company has started a brewery tourist registry that visitors are encouraged “sign,” to show the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) just how much tourism is actually generated by the craft beer industry.
The Florida Brewers Guild has started crowdfunding to raise money for legal fees. The initiative is being shared with the craft beer community by many brewers, including Intuition Ale Works Founder Ben Davis. Davis is in the process of moving his brewery and tap room from King Street in Riverside to Bay Street in Jacksonville. The project, which includes a rooftop beer garden, is going to cost him about $3 million. “We don’t apply for the tap room license until we’re ready to open, and we’re looking at late September or early October,” he said. “What if we can’t get the license? That’s going to hurt me severely.”
The effects of this lawsuit will decimate the bourgeoning craft beer industry in Florida. Established breweries will likely move, or at least expand in other states. New breweries that have yet to obtain large-scale distribution will go out of business and breweries in planning (mine included!) will likely be killed before they ever get off the ground.
The 2014 growler battle has grown into an all-out war on the industry as a whole and only time will tell if the DBPR will kowtow to Big Beer and now Big Retail, as the Florida Senate did last year. This is a call to arms! It will be up to us to stand together for our livelihoods and our right to a pint. I, for one, will not go down without a fight. I have started a petition at change.org. If you have ever traveled to or within FL to visit our breweries, please SIGN and SHARE!
Join us. We are just getting warmed up.
