Omnivore - Decimated Beer Jobs Bill passes through Regulated Industries

Updates: Friday night, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild sent an email to supporters. "This is just one step in a long process, but we're excited that it's been accomplished and we can move on to the Rules Committee next," it reads in part. "We'll have one week from today to get SB 63 out of Rules Committee and through a Senate floor vote - so keep your eyes on your email, there's bound to be a call to action soon!"

On Saturday morning, the new version of SB 63 was posted on the Georgia General Assembly website.

Shortly after that, consumers and brewers began analyzing the bill's language on Reddit.

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After an eventful week at the Gold Dome, both sides of the Beer Jobs Bill fight convened once again in Room 310 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building Friday morning for a second hearing and voted in favor of Senate Bill 63, albeit a drastically altered version of the original bill designed to loosen the state's three-tier beer distribution laws for Georgia brewpubs and breweries.

The new version of SB 63, a committee sub (basically, a last-minute substitution for the original bill) proposed by Regulated Industries Chairman/State Sen. Rick Jeffares (R-McDonough), allows for no direct sales for breweries. Instead, it alters the current tour structure so that brewers can give away 36 ounces on-premises during the tour (compared to the current 32 ounces) as well as a "souvenir" malt beverage container of no more than 64 ounces to-go. In other words, what was originally a bill allowing direct sales has been reduced to a bill that expands on the current "free beer" tour structure, except that breweries would be able to charge various rates for tours (they sold glasses before, into which they poured the free beer) depending on how much beer is consumed by attendees.

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As for brewpubs, they'll no longer be limited to draft-only production. In addition to bottle and can production, the new SB 63 allows for a growler provision similar to 2014's Senate Study Committee report. In short, consumers who buy a meal at a brewpub could also buy a growler with the meal, then take home the remainder of the growler that they don't drink with their food.

(At press time, the new version of SB 63 was not available on the Georgia General Assembly website. We'll update this story when it is.)

During the discussion of the bill at the hearing, tours weren't mentioned, which led to a lot of confused beer consumers celebrating a small victory on Twitter.

According to a source close to the negotiations, the alterations to SB 63 were decided by the Regulated Industries Senators, with Jeffares at the helm, and "little input from brewers, wholesalers, or retailers."

"We're disappointed in this proposal and cautious about its consequences," Georgia Craft Brewers Guild executive director Nancy Palmer tells Creative Loafing. "Though we greatly appreciate Chairman Jeffares work in getting this bill to a vote, we're frustrated that the original SB 63 wasn't voted on."

"No matter how silly it may seem, the main thing is to get a bill passed," GCBG president and co-founder/president of Terrapin Beer Company, John Cochran, says. "Any bill. And we are thankful to the committee for doing that. We will work on improving this bill when we go to the House side. There really is a long way to go."

If the new SB 63 makes it the rest of the way through the Senate, the GCBG has the option to introduce the original bill in the House in hopes of making it through. If it does, the Senate and House version of the bill will have to be reconciled in a conference committee where Palmer's hopeful a compromise in favor of Georgia breweries could be struck.

"We began talking about this bill with stockholders in the industry way back in August of last year," Palmer says. "Since then, the Guild has negotiated down from unlimited sales to 288 ounces to 144 ounces. Our original bill is more than reasonable."

Up next for the new SB 63 is the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide if it gets a full Senate vote. If it passes that vote, it's off to the House to do the whole process over again there.

"I know Chairman Jeffares worked very hard on this proposal and we genuinely appreciate his effort and support, but I can't say that the Guild's leadership is anything short of troubled by this new version of SB 63," Palmer says. But as the bill continues through a Senate Rules Committee and floor vote, she remains optimistic. "We're ultimately hopeful and are looking forward as we work through the legislative process."

Read all of Creative Loafing's Beer Jobs Bill coverage.