{"id":7817,"date":"2017-04-13T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7817"},"modified":"2017-04-12T18:40:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T22:40:23","slug":"a-mug-half-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7817","title":{"rendered":"A Mug Half Full"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

A General Assembly compromise<\/a> passed on Sine Die will allow Diageo\u2019s new brewery in Baltimore County to move forward.\u00a0 But the amended Bill 1283<\/a> is a mug half full, with the state\u2019s craft brewers inevitably seeking more in the future.<\/p>\n

A brief refresher.\u00a0 Diageo, owner of the world-famous Guinness brand, announced plans to open its first U.S. brewery in more than sixty years<\/a> in Baltimore County a few months ago.\u00a0 Diageo did not ask for a state subsidy, but it did ask for permission to sell 5,000 barrels per year from the brewery\u2019s taproom, up from the state\u2019s current 500 barrel limit (by far the lowest in the country).\u00a0 A bill passed by the House of Delegates raised the barrel limit to 2,000 (with another 1,000 allowed if bought from a wholesaler), but it also cut back hours of operations and prohibited off-site contract brewing, a major hit on the industry.\u00a0 After an outcry from brewers, the Senate amended the bill to allow a limited amount of contract brewing and to grandfather the hours of existing breweries and those in the approval process (including Diageo).\u00a0 The House passed the amended bill on Sine Die.<\/p>\n

The deal allows Diageo to come to Maryland, and that\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0 But it also contains two counter-productive elements.<\/p>\n

The Concession to Wholesalers<\/u><\/p>\n

Brewery taprooms are now allowed to sell 2,000 barrels directly to customers each year.\u00a0 (The next-lowest state, North Carolina, allows 25,000 barrels<\/a>.)\u00a0 Breweries can sell another 1,000 barrels, but to do so, they have to go\u00a0\u00a0through a wholesaler.\u00a0 That means loading the beer on a wholesaler\u2019s truck, sending the truck to a warehouse where the beer is offloaded, then bringing it back to the brewery to unload it again.\u00a0 FOLKS, YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP.\u00a0 The graphic below from the Comptroller\u2019s Office illustrates how absurd this is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grandfathering of Hours<\/u><\/p>\n

Existing breweries and those holding on-site consumpion permits and licenses as of April 1, 2017 are allowed to stay open as late as their local jurisdictions permit them, usually between midnight and 2 AM.\u00a0 All new breweries must close by 10 PM, slamming the door shut on further growth.<\/p>\n

The State of Maryland is effectively telling the craft beer industry the following: We don\u2019t like you.\u00a0 We will tolerate those of you who are already here, but we don\u2019t want any more of you.<\/p>\n

Contrast this with Virginia.\u00a0 The Commonwealth\u2019s Governor, Terry McAuliffe, is a joyous deal-maker, back-slapper and salesman who loves bringing employers to his state \u2013 especially craft breweries.\u00a0 McAuliffe promotes the industry every chance he gets<\/a>, including the creation of Stone Brewing\u2019s<\/a> special beer in honor of Virginia, Give Me Stout or Give Me Death<\/a>.\u00a0 His term has seen almost 100 new breweries open in the state<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps his greatest achievement was a successful four-year campaign to entice Oregon\u2019s Deschutes to open near Roanoke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s Beer Drinker in Chief.\u00a0 Photo credit: Richmond\u2019s Style Weekly<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here is\u00a0McAuliffe bragging about Virginia\u2019s booming beer industry to Hampton Roads\u2019 WAVY TV<\/a> just last week.<\/p>\n

Governor Terry McAuliffe spoke to the National Craft Breweries Association in Washington D.C. Tuesday evening to give his best sales pitch to attract new beer businesses to Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got Stone to move here, and we got Deschutes to move here, we\u2019ve got Ballast Point to move here, Green Flash, I mean, no one has had the success we\u2019ve had the last two years recruiting major known craft breweries,\u201d McAuliffe told 8News Reporter Jonathan Costen, pointing out that the booming beer industry has brought hundreds of jobs to the area. \u201cWe have 190-craft breweries in Virginia today. It\u2019s a billion dollar industry for us, so I believe it really helps our tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks come, they love to come to our craft breweries, but in addition to that, these craft breweries are all buying locally produced products, it is great for our farmers. We can\u2019t produce enough hops here, so I tell people go out and start a hop farm here in Virginia,\u201d McAuliffe added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McAuliffe\u2019s message is the polar opposite of Maryland\u2019s.<\/p>\n

One elected official who understands the economic and cultural potential of craft beer is Comptroller Peter Franchot, who aggressively defended the industry<\/a> during the debate over Bill 1283.\u00a0 The Comptroller is now convening a task force<\/a> to study the state\u2019s beer laws from top to bottom with the goal of producing model legislation next year.\u00a0 An interesting question is whether Governor Larry Hogan will come on board.\u00a0 The Governor has allied with Franchot on more than one of his ideas in the past, including school air conditioning and starting school after Labor Day. \u00a0Craft brewing is a natural issue for Hogan, given its potential for job creation and the Democrats\u2019 near-fumbling of the issue this year.<\/p>\n

Just two guys enjoying some great Maryland craft beer.\u00a0 Photo Credit: Peter Franchot.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maryland\u2019s iron cartel of manufacturers, wholesalers, licensees and supportive politicians has kept in place a stable, profitable system for a long time.\u00a0 The just-concluded brewery bill is only the most recent manifestation of their control of Annapolis.\u00a0 So opening up the beer industry is an uphill battle.\u00a0 But if Franchot, the craft industry, its customers and maybe Hogan can make this a signature issue in an election year\u2026?\u00a0 Well, pull up a stool, grab a mug and get ready for\u00a0the show!<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Your author has done campaign-related work for Peter Franchot in the past.\u00a0 His positions on issues like this one, including Montgomery County\u2019s liquor monopoly<\/a>, have earned my support.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. A General Assembly compromise passed on Sine Die will allow Diageo\u2019s new brewery in Baltimore County to move forward.\u00a0 But the amended Bill 1283 is a mug half full, with the state\u2019s craft brewers inevitably seeking more in the future. A brief refresher.\u00a0 Diageo, owner of the world-famous Guinness brand, announced plans … Continue reading A Mug Half Full<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,26],"tags":[1545,1926,1444,1472,1927],"class_list":["post-7817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-peter-franchot","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-beer","tag-liquor-reform","tag-peter-franchot","tag-terry-mcauliffe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-225","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7817"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7827,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817\/revisions\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}