Bills Brewing before the Florida Legislature this Month
- Tree of Knowledge Research
- Mar 4, 2014
- 4 min read
March 4, 2014 started Florida’s annual state legislative session. With Florida’s craft beer industry more than doubling in the past couple of years, Sunshine State Brewers are seeking to make some changes regarding Florida’s antiquated beer laws. A pair of bills being presented before lawmakers includes Florida Senate Bill 470 [i], allowing breweries to offer free tastings, and Florida Senate Bill 406 [ii], allowing breweries to sell 64-ounce installments of beer to-go, also known as growlers.
Past legislative efforts similar to the above laws have been unsuccessful[iii] and the craft brewers blame large-scale breweries and distributors who have maintained a monopoly over the beer industry for years. These large-scale breweries and distributors, who fear their business will stagnate because of craft brewers' growth and the passing of these laws, are fighting to maintain control over beer sales. In particular, these big business beer tycoons are fighting to maintain the antiquated three-tier system for alcohol sales. The three-tier system was a system set up after the repeal of Prohibition by a majority of states, including Florida.[iv]
The structure behind the three-tiered system requires that manufacturers of alcohol, the companies that distribute the alcohol, and the sellers of the alcohol maintain separate roles throughout the process. Essentially, the impact of the law is to keep those who make beer separate from those selling the beer, which would mean breweries would not be able to sell their products.[v] Over time, exceptions of this three-tier system were created that allowed these breweries to bypass the middle tier (under given circumstances) and sell their craft beer onsite in 32 ounce bottles or 128 ounce bottles[vi] – just not 62 ounce bottles, the most popular sized growler in 47 states[vii].
For local brewers, the passing of Florida Senate Bill 406, allowing the sale of 62 ounce growlers, is important because growlers are one of craft brews' biggest moneymakers.[viii] In Florida, consumers have difficulty getting their hands on growler sizes that Sunshine State breweries can legally fill (32 oz. or 128 oz.) because most growlers found nationwide are 62 ounces. Although SB 406 sailed through the Business & Professional Regulation Subcommittee[ix], large-scale brewers and distributors are pushing back against such legislation.
In particular, House Bill 1329 was presented by Representative Ray Rodrigues. This bill would allow breweries to sell 62 ounce growlers; however, other provisions associated with the bill have the potential to stagnate craft brews growth. For example, this bill would outlaw the selling of 128 ounce growlers and would restrict brewers from selling guest beer brewed by other brewers on-site by bottle or as a guest tap. These two provisions were deleted by the Committee on March 4; however, other anti-craft brew provisions still remain including that the only way for brewers to sell a particular tap, they must intend to produce enough of that tap to package and send to distributors.
SB 406 simply wants to get rid of the growler size restriction without changing much of anything else regarding beer laws; however, this bill still has to be reviewed by additional committees.
Hostility between the craft brewers and large-scale brewers developed when craft brewers began finding loopholes in the exceptions to the three-tier system. These craft brewers began selling not only their own crafts, but beers they did not manufacture, thus circumventing the middle man in the three-tier system all together. The large distributors felt craft brewers were abusing the three-tier system and thus are advocating to keep the three-tier system intact and want lawmakers to clear up these loopholes in the system.[x]
Bill 470, allowing breweries and other stores to offer beer tasting has faced little opposition and looks like it may pass the full house; however, the debate over growler size seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Hopefully, after this legislative session, a legislative package that helps craft brewers without upsetting the large distributor groups will bring all sides of the beer wars together for happy hour.
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[i] 2014 Florida Senate Bill No. 470, Florida One Hundred Sixteenth Regular Session, (An act relating to malt beverages; amending s. 561.42, F.S.; removing the prohibition on beer samplings at the premises of certain vendors; creating s. 563.09, F.S.; authorizing malt beverage tastings upon certain licensed premises)
[ii] 2014 Florida Senate Bill No. 406, Florida One Hundred Sixteenth Regular Session, (amending s. 563.06, F.S.; providing for container sizes of 64 ounces)
[iii] Last spring, a bill that would have legalized the 64 once growler died when Representative Debbi Mayfield refused to bring it up for vote in the House Business and Professional Regulation Subcommittee that she chairs. See, Brendan Farrington, Florida Brewers Want to Legalize Beer Growlers, HuffPost Miami, November 25, 2013, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/florida-beer-growlers_n_4338246.html
[v]See Evan T. Lawson, The Future of the Three-Tiered System as a Control of Marketing Alcoholic Beverages, in Social and Economic Control of Alcohol: The 21st Amendment in the 21st Century, 31, 33 -34 (Carole J. Jurkiewicz & Murphy J. Painter eds., 2008).
[vi] The exception was created to allow Anheuser-Bush to sell beer at Busch Gardens theme park.
[vii] Brendan Farrigton, Mixed bag this legislative session, The Gainesville Sun, February 27, 2014, available at http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140227/GUARDIAN/140229634/-1/sports04?Title=Mixed-bag-this-legislative-session.
[viii] Herald Staff and Wire Reports, Beer bills advance in state House, Bradenton Herald, February 15, 2014, available at, http://www.bradenton.com/2014/02/15/4994370/beer-bills-advance-in-state-house.html
[ix] Aaron Deslatte, Beer-growler bill sails through once-opposed House panel, Orlando Sentinel, February 11, 2014, available at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/blogs/political-pulse/os-beergrowler-bill-sails-through-onceopposed-house-panel-20140211,0,1159675.post
[x] Gary Rohrer, Growler bill gets Senate start, but beer battle still looms, The Florida Current, February 13, 2013, available at http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=36450107 (“Eric Criss, president and lobbyist for the Beer Industry of Florida -- a MillerCoors distributor, wants state lawmakers to clear up loopholes” . . . in three-tier system)
