The Georgia General Assembly doesn’t resume until January, but the state’s burgeoning craft beer industry wants to ensure they’re a top priority when legislators return to Atlanta.
The Georgia Craft Brewer’s Guild has hired lobbying firm Thrash Group, helmed by consultants Mo Thrash and John Haliburton, and launched an online crowdfunding campaign to raise $30,000 for their legislative reform efforts.
Nancy Palmer, executive director of the trade guild, said the members’ top priorities are allowing off-premise sales for brew pubs and on- and off-premise sales for production breweries.
Under the Peach State’s current laws, brew pubs like Savannah’s Moon River Brewing Co. — or any restaurant that brews its own beer — can sell beer on premises but not in to-go containers for off-premise consumption.
The laws are even more restrictive for production microbreweries such as Southbound and Service Brewing Co. They prohibit any form of direct alcohol sales to consumers, meaning no pint glasses, growlers, kegs or six-packs.
These breweries are allowed to hold tastings and tours but can’t charge or even serve peanuts to customers to accompany their beer samples.
“We want to rectify all of that. We want retail sales direct to consumers for both breweries and brew pubs,” said Palmer.
Georgia is one of just five states that does not allow any form of retail at production breweries, and Palmer said it’s hurting Georgia’s competitiveness, especially in the Southeast.
“It’s important to note that though our industry is growing, and it is, that we’re not growing at the rate that national trends suggest that we should be,” said Palmer.
Georgia has 32 craft breweries compared to North Carolina with more than 100, including brew pubs, and Florida with around 66.
Carly Wiggins, co-founder of Southbound Brewing Co., Savannah’s first production brewery, said many small breweries are missing out on the extra income that tastings bring, which in turn helps them to expand and add jobs.
Southbound will produce 2,500 barrels by the end of 2014 and is on tap in dozens of restaurants and bars in the area, but Wiggins said they are still at a disadvantage compared to other states.
“People assume you’re making a ton of money as a brewery, but that’s just not the case, especially when you’re not able to do these sales of pints over the bar or growlers to go,” she said. “For the first five or so years, the tastings are what kind of help you float with this little bit of extra income.”
Two bills introduced in 2013, HB 314 and SB 174, that would’ve allowed limited retail of beer off premises failed to muster enough support to move forward. Palmer said a major hurdle for their trade organization is educating the general public and legislators about the industry, which is still relatively young.
“I think when a brewery like Sweetwater opened 17 years ago, I don’t think that anyone knew there would be another 30 businesses to open in the years following,” she said.
Even well-established breweries such as 12-year-old Terrapin Beer in Athens started out small before growing into its present operation, with an expected output of 47,000 barrels this year and distribution in 11 states.
John Cochran, Terrapin’s president and co-founder, said other states have surpassed Georgia because their laws make it possible for breweries to start small and use their production facilities to help grow and foster their brand and customer base. The industry has its own subset of tourists, too, who plan their vacations to areas with high concentrations of breweries.
“If you look at other states … North Carolina has well over 100, Colorado has 200 … and part of the reason for that is it’s hard to get started in Georgia,” he said. “You have to come in with a really large investment of capital to survive. What we’re missing is that small nano-brewing movement, and truthfully, that’s where a lot of the innovation in brewing is coming from.”
He said a lot of larger West Coast breweries have completely skipped over Georgia when looking for places to open a second facility because of these restrictions, depriving the state of both money and additional jobs. California-based Sierra Nevada and Colorado-based Oskar Blues have opened facilities in western North Carolina while New Belgium has one under construction.
He said this is not an attempt to cut out distributors or to self-distribute.
“Some people try to paint this as a David versus Goliath fight between brewers and distributors; it’s not that by any means,” he said. “We support the three-tier system. We just think there are some minor tweaks that can be made to make Georgia compete more effectively.”
Craft beer sales in the United State increased 17 percent in 2013 and now capture 7.8 percent of the overall beer market, according to the national Brewers Association.
Wiggins said there’s no reason Georgia should be left behind.
“(Georgia) just seemed like the ideal place for us, and I hate that the laws do stop a lot of people from opening places here,” she said. “I think if we could get that changed, why shouldn’t there be 50 or 100 breweries?”
Palmer said they’ve learned from their previous efforts that awareness is paramount.
“It’s definitely a new and exciting industry, so there’s certainly some education that has to happen to bring everyone up to speed on what a craft brewery is and what they can do for their communities and the jobs and economic impact they provide,” she said.
For more information, visit gabeerjobs.com or the Indiegogo campaign at igg.me/at/GeorgiaCraftBrewers