We’ve been following Florida Bill SB 1714 that would add new regulations to craft brewers in the state. Cigar City has even threatened to leave the state if SB 1714 passes, and I’m sad to report the bill has passed. Some details from tbo:
The Senate voted 30-10 on Tuesday for a bill that would restrict the amount of packaged beer breweries can sell directly to visitors.
Craft brewers opposed the bill. They currently can sell unlimited amounts of their kegged, canned and bottled beer at the breweries.
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, argued the brewers are now operating under a loophole created for Busch Gardens in Tampa, and that the bill would clear up ambiguity in the law.
But Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, said the bill will stifle the growing craft beer industry and cost jobs.
Current law allows brewers to make and sell their own beer from tasting rooms next to their brewhouses, but does not allow a 64-ounce “growler” — the glass or ceramic jugs that craft beer often is sold in after being drawn from a tap. They’re legal everywhere but here, Mississippi and Idaho.
Among other provisions, the bill (SB 1714) legalizes 64-ounce growlers, but also requires brewers who produce more than 2,000 kegs worth of beer a year to sell their bottled or canned products to distributors, which they then must buy back to sell in tasting rooms.
Stargel says it preserves the three-tier system of regulating alcoholic beverages that insulates brewers, distributors and retailers from price-fixing.
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