DoR issues proposed Georgia brewery regulations, accepts public comments through May 6th

Alabama beer to-goNearly 3 months after a “deal” was reached by brewers, wholesalers, and the DoR proposed regulation changes have finally been released.  They are not yet final as the DoR will accept public comments on the proposed regulations until 10:00 AM, Monday, May 6, 2016.  The 29 page document was released today and mimics pretty closely what was originally announced in the deal back in January.

If adopted, Georgia’s breweries would be able to:

  • Sell tours at variable prices.  Prices could vary depending on the “amount and quality of alcohol included in the free tastings and souvenir” subject to limitations prescribed in existing alcohol code.  All tours must be paid for in advance.
  • Use social media to alert the public where their products are available.
  • Allow third-party ticket sales.
  • Permit special events on-site for organizations that obtain a “Special Event Permit”.  These special events would be allowed to sell alcohol on-site, provided the alcohol was obtained via a wholesaler. (They could sell that brewery’s beer… but only if they get it from a distributor. :/)
  • Sell food.  Any food included in the tour must be included in the non-itemized price, and paid for in advance.
  • Allow third-party food sales.

There are some other items in the regulations but this is the meat and potatoes that most of us will care about.  They also go on to outline penalties for violating the rules, rules for retailers exchanging products to wholesalers, among other things.  If you’d like to read the full document it’s available here.  Enjoy.  There was a bit of verbiage around the Facility Tours that I found confusing; I’ve reached out to get some clarification on that.

I’m glad to see these (proposed) changes, especially since most of this was already allowed via passage of SB63 last year.  It is nice that the DoR reversed their policy bulletin, and I’m told they were actually quite helpful when working through this.  I’m not ready to be fully un-suspicious, but I believe in the past some people who benefited from the policy revision worked in pretty shady ways to make that happen.

Perhaps Georgia’s brewers could start selling sandwiches to offset the fact that industry data shows breweries in other states are 2.5x more profitable per barrel of beer produced than Georgia’s brewers are due to current laws.  I hope they sell a lot of them.  Let’s be clear, even with these changes Georgia’s beer laws still suck.  This will just help them to suck slightly less.

UPDATE: The DoR shared the following statement in reference to the effective date on the regulations. “Upon completion of the thirty day comment period and required public hearing on May 6th, the Department will submit the new regulations to the Secretary of State for adoption.  The regulations will go into effect 20 days after being submitted to the Secretary of State.”  So assuming a smooth timeline from moving forward these regulations won’t go into effect until around May 26, 2016.”

https://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Beer-Legislation-Update-Image-PNG.pnghttps://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Beer-Legislation-Update-Image-PNG-150x150.pngTim DennisLegislationNewsSB63DoR issues proposed Georgia brewery regulations, accepts public comments through May 6th Nearly 3 months after a 'deal' was reached by brewers, wholesalers, and the DoR proposed regulation changes have finally been released.  They are not yet final as the DoR will accept public comments on the proposed regulations until...Cold beer, hot conversations, stupid jokes.