Support Your Local Breweries

Georgia is an interesting state when it comes to breweries.  We rank 28th in the country when it comes to the number of breweries operating on our land.  Now consider that Georgia is the 8th largest state by population.  This piece of information, drops us all the way down to 47th in the country for breweries per capita.  47th!  How is this possible?  Simple, Georgia has some of the most prohibitive laws around the brewing industry in the country.  It is difficult to open a brewery in Georgia, and it's even more difficult to make it financially successful.

Did you know...

• You can't purchase beer from a brewery.  If you visit a brewery in Georgia, you can buy t-shirts, glasses and koozies, but you can't buy the one thing they actually produce - beer.  Georgia is one of only four states where you can't buy beer from a brewery.  The others are Mississippi, West Virginia and North Dakota.
• Breweries can give away up to 32oz of beer for free, but only if you participate in the free 2 hour tour.
• Georgia has some of the highest excise taxes on beer produced by breweries.
• It is illegal for a brewery to tell you where you can purchase their beer.

Here's where the problem lies.  The craft beer industry is booming, bringing tourists and jobs to states around the country - but not Georgia.  We're missing out.  If a brewery can sell beer to the public, they need to hire the staff to do so.  If a brewery can promote their product, they can help encourage people to purchase Georgia beer over out-of-state beer.  All of these activities create additional tax revenue for the state of Georgia.  Everyone wins.  

Distributors are a necessary part of the system, and will continue to make money hand over fist, distributing out-of-state beer and local beer to bars and liquor stores.  No one is going out of business because breweries make a little extra money improving their customer experience.  If they were, distributors would be going out of business in 46 other states, but they're not.  In fact, it's a little sad that distributors view breweries as the enemy.  They have gone so far as to contribute $85,000 to prevent breweries from being able to sell beer on their premises.  All of that money, used to prevent the creation of small businesses and jobs.

What can you do?  You can sign the petition at GABeerJobs.com.  If you have the financial means to contribute to the Brewer's Guild's legislative efforts, you can contribute at their Indiegogo page.

Improved legislation that treats breweries in a similar manner to wineries will create jobs and provide additional tax revenue for the state.  Help make Georgia better for everyone and support the GABeerJobs.com campaign.