August 15th, 2011
Two crazy weeks
For brewers, beer lovers, politicians and alcohol regulators it has been an interesting two weeks in Massachusetts. For those who don’t know the Massachusetts ABCC, which regulates all manner of alcohol-related businesses, released a decision several weeks ago with wide-ranging impact. There have been many articles, blogs, tv and radio spots, as well as internet rants regarding the decision. I’m not going to rehash all of them here, if you want the background info go google it!
The gist of the situation is that for years there have been two classes of licenses in Massachusetts for breweries, a manufacturers license and a farmer-brewer’s license. The farmer-brewer license allows you to do all sorts of fun things like distribute your own beer, and sell your beer at retail, and have a tasting room, etc.
The manufacturers license allows you to make beer. That’s it.
Oh, did I mention that farmer-brewer licenses start at $22 and manufacturers licenses are over $4,000 annually?
So you must have to be a farm to get the cheaper license, right? This is where things get a bit murky. For years breweries have been receiving farmer-brewer licenses without having to demonstrate that they are actually engaged in farming. The law isn’t exactly clear on how much farming a brewer has to do to qualify. Maybe one hop plant in a pot is good enough? In point of fact, many brewers did choose to grow or source local ingredients when possible.
In a move that was probably long overdue, the ABCC decided that they needed to provide a more strict interpretation of this law. In a decision that sent jaws dropping to the floor in breweries around the state, they declared that a farmer-brewer must produce 50% of the aggregate grain and hops used for brewing. This is a staggering number, and by my informal calculations, to supply all of the breweries in the state would require more farmland than currently exists in Massachusetts.
The implications of the ruling would have had significant impact on most of the breweries in the state, would have put some out of business, and may have driven start-ups like us over the border into New Hampshire. After some swift action by the Mass. Brewer’s Guild and the office of the Treasurer, the ruling was rolled back last week. Existing breweries will be able to renew their licenses, new breweries will be able to get new licenses, and work will begin on creating a new class of small brewer license.
So where does this leave us now?
I believe that we can learn a few lessons from this whole situation.
1. Clear, appropriate regulation is important to our business! We could have avoided this whole issue if licensing standards were updated to reflect the reality of the current time. Creating a separate small brewer license would have been helpful before this decision came down. This type of license is now being debated, after the fact. If you want to see more new, creative small breweries this is important to you.
2. We need to do a better job of communicating with our politicians and bureaucrats. Again we may have avoided this issue if we had been able to educated the ABCC and the Treasurer’s office about the business of brewing and farming. Had the implications of this decision been fully understood and explained, I doubt that it would have been enacted.
3. Beer lovers and brewers in Massachusetts have a voice and can make a difference! We have all received so many encouraging words from beer fans during this saga. Some wrote letters to their elected officials, others to local papers and some local farmers even offered land and crops to various brewers. This is democracy at its best. Within two weeks we were able to get a bad decision reversed thanks to fans, brewers and the Mass. Brewer’s Guild.
We at RiverWalk Brewing have been in the process of getting our Federal licensing for the past 5 months. All of our plans were predicated on our ability to receive the farmer-brewer’s license. I honestly don’t know how we would have moved forward without getting this type of license. There were some tense moments a few weeks ago, but we are grateful to be part of such a wonderful community.
-Steve Sanderson
RiverWalk Brewing Co.