June 8th, 2011
Wisconsin Beer Laws
Beer Law: Wisconsin Craft Brewers Need Your Help
#beerlaw #wisconsin #craftbeer
We received this information from a couple of different sources: ” Wisconsin Brewers Guild needs your help!”.
If you can, please help.
Sean
2Beerguys.com
Drink Craft Beer and don’t let anyone take it away!
From Bull Falls Brewery
Wisconsin Craft Brewers Under Assault
Big breweries and distributors attempt to “fix” beer distribution, in the process add items into budget to harm small brewers and kill job creation. Your Help is Needed!!
June 2011. Last Tuesday evening, May 31, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee added a motion inserting policy items to the Budget. Ostensibly this is intended to “fix” the 3-tier system of Brewers-Distributors-Retailers to prevent Anheuser-Busch from buying up Wisconsin distributors. The motion is being initiated by Miller-Coors and the Wisconsin Beer Distributors Association. If this were all there was to it, OK. But there is more to it.
In the process, items have been added that may literally put some small brewers out of business and most certainly prevent others from starting up. While beer sales as a whole have been declining in past years, the craft beer industry nationally and here in Wisconsin has been growing by over 10% annually in the same period. Correspondingly, the number of beer distributors in the state have been declining while the craft brew industry has been establishing new breweries, growing existing ones, creating new jobs and millions of dollars of new business and tourism in the process.
Because it was submitted as a “budget” item by the Joint Finance Committee rather than proposed legislation to be reviewed and debated, we in the Craft Brew Industry were caught by surprise. There is not space here to list everything in the motion but here is a link to our analysis of Motion 14, “Branch Legislation”. This represents only our view of the situation.
As one of our friends who enjoys fresh craft beer right at the brewery and that appreciates the quality of locally made products at your favorite restaurant or bar, and who loves the festivities surrounding our local Bull Falls Brewery and who wants these things to continue…
Click on the links below and email your legislator and anyone else’s too, and tell them to “LEAVE OUR STATE SMALL BUSINESS CRAFT BREWERS ALONE and keep them out of legislation involving the two foreign-based largest mega-breweries in the world.”
All of us here at Bull Falls Brewery will appreciate it very much if you let your voice be heard.
Thank You!!
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From Great Lakes Brewing News
What a week in the region’s Beer Capital City! For a state known for craft beer, Wisconsin has seen some highs and lows this spring. Earlier in the spring, homebrewers found their pursuits in question because of some restrictive interpretations of outdated and ambiguous laws. Then the two largest cities in the state had their first craft beer weeks, celebrating the quality and diversity of quality beer. Now the roller coaster is headed downward again with the stealth introduction of a budget amendment that many of the state’s brewers fear may restrict their already limited rights to self-distribution, retail business, ability to open restaurants, and much more.
Few people are really sure what the impact of the proposed changes in the law may mean to craft brewers, but for many it brings back some bad memories of how what started as a simple proposal to allow Great Dane and other brewers to open additional brewubs became a much longer and more complex law forcing new brewers into a strict either/or choice between brewpub or micro, restricting growth and innovation as new brewing businesses evolve. Others are simply concerned that this is being done as a budget amendment rather than as a separate bill, in some respects bypassing the more traditional legislative process of full public hearings. And still others don’t think it’s such a big deal and will not appreciably harm very many existing craft brewers, although it may have a negative impact on those who want to get in the business. We at Brewing News are not in a position to speculate on the impact of the proposal (which ostensibly is being proposed to limit the ability of A-B to buy up distributors in the state), but you can read the proposal of the Illinois-headquartered MillerCoors at http://www.scribd.com/doc/56847716/Motion-414.
In the true Madison spirit of pro-democracy action, craft beer enthusiasts have used social media sites to call for a Friday happy hour march from the Capitol down State Street, where some will call upon pubs to stop carrying MillerCoors products. Some brewpubs and craft beer bars have already announced that they will stop offering the MillerCoors products that they keep on hand for customers who request mass market beers. The Wisconsin Brewers Guild has taken a position against the legislation and brewers are using social media to get the word out and encourage their fans to contact their legislators. To paraphrase an old saying, we are living in interesting times….
FROM THE WISCONSIN BREWERS GUILD: Friday, June 3, 2011
Wisconsin Craft Brewers need your help. The Joint Finance Committee approved a measure on Tuesday that would severely limit Wisconsin Craft Brewers in their ability to distribute the beers they produce. Motion 414 has now become part of the budget, and as written, limits distribution avenues and licenses craft brewers can hold.
Curtailed by this proposed language are distribution channels, the ability to own and operate a brewery and a restaurant, and the ability to sell those businesses currently held.
As a beer lover, this could limit access to your favorite brands, increase prices, or possibly force your favorite craft brewery out of business.
The Wisconsin Craft Brewing industry is a bright spot on the Wisconsin business scene. Taxes paid, materials purchased from local suppliers, the number of Wisconsin residents employed have all grown during these last few years. Craft brewing is a success story during these years of recession.
Don’t let that be taken away!
Call or email your representative today and let them know you want to stop any measures that would restrict the ability for Wisconsin Craft Breweries to conduct or grow their businesses.
To find your state representative: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx