Georgia: General Assembly eyeing study of Georgia liquor laws

Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Dave Williams

Mar 9, 2016

Georgia’s craft breweries and distilleries aren’t keeping up with their fast-growing competitors in other states, a state lawmaker said Wednesday.

The state’s breweries are two and a half times less profitable on average than those elsewhere, Rep. Michael Caldwell, R-Woodstock, told members of the House Special Rules Committee. Combined with below-average growth in the number of new distilleries, Georgia is losing 12,700 jobs a more robust industry could otherwise create, Caldwell said.

Caldwell is sponsoring a resolution to form a study committee to look for ways to update Georgia’s laws and regulations governing the liquor industry in order to incentivize growth.

While Georgia’s laws have remained largely unchanged since the end of Prohibition, other states have found ways to encourage new craft brewers and distillers, Caldwell said. For example, Georgia is one of only two states that doesn’t allow breweries to sell beer. he said.

“The beauty of this is 48 states have jumped into this ahead of us,” he said. “We have the opportunity to look at what has worked and what hasn’t worked.”

The General Assembly did step up last year with legislation giving craft breweries and distilleries more options regarding pricing for tours. It allowed them to offer customers a menu of choices and the ability to take home “souvenirs” of up to a six-pack of beer or a 750-milliliter bottle of liquor.

However, the state Department of Revenue subsequently issued a policy bulletin declaring tours must have a fixed price whether the customer wants to sample the product onsite, take a souvenir home, or both.

After brewers and distillers complained, the agency agreed in January to issue new, less restrictive rules implementing the 2015 legislation. The announcement came after negotiations involving representatives of brewers, distillers and beer wholesalers.

The proposed House study committee would meet this summer and fall and make recommendations by Dec. 1.