E-Malt.com News article: USA, MA: State reverses controversial rule on craft brewers

State alcohol regulators are backing away from a controversial licensing decision after roughly two dozen brewers insisted it could put them out of business, PatriotLedger.com reported on August, 8.

State Treasurer Steve Grossman announced the decision on August, 8 calling it an opportunity for a “clean slate.”

The reversal was praised by Rob Martin, president of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild. Grossman had met with Martin, owner of Mercury Brewing Co. in Ipswich, and other members of the guild earlier in the day.

One week ago, the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission – which reports to Grossman’s office – blindsided small brewers when it notified them that they would be required to grow at least 50 percent of the grain and hops they use or buy them from local farmers in order to obtain or renew a farmer-brewer license.

The ruling would have directly affected about 25 farmer-brewery license holders in the state. They said meeting the 50-percent threshold for a farmer-brewer license would be too difficult, and that paying thousands of dollars a year for a different license – a manufacturer’s license – would be too expensive. That license also wouldn’t allow them to operate tasting rooms that many brewers rely on for additional revenue.

The commission said it wanted to promote local agriculture and make sure that the spirit of the state law that allows for farmer-brewery licenses was being followed.

Alcohol commission chairwoman Kim Gainsboro said no one from the state’s agricultural community had complained about brewers’ ingredients. In fact, Grossman said, farmers enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the industry in which brewers gave nearly 8 million pounds of spent feed to local farmers every year.

Gainsboro defended her agency’s original action, saying, “The commission felt it wasn’t an onerous burden and a reasonable thing to ask brewers to do.” But Grossman described it as a bad decision and praised Gainsboro for reversing it, saying when government makes mistakes, it should act swiftly to fix them and move on.

Grossman last year campaigned heavily on a promise to help the state’s small businesses, and said he didn’t want to advance a policy that could harm an industry that, he said, employs 1,100 people in the state.

The alcohol commission decided to shelve its 50-percent rule. Grossman said at least two public hearings will be scheduled – one in Boston, one elsewhere in the state – to get feedback from the public, brewers, the beer industry and farmers to determine the criteria that would work best for the farmer-brewery license.

Grossman said those hearings would be scheduled fairly quickly, but declined to lay out any firm timetable for further action


10 August, 2011