Photo © Brewers Association

It’s a little more legit than a pub crawl, and can lead to meaningful changes that could benefit the craft beer industry.

Here’s the deal…

On June 12, things got a little more fun in DC when the national craft beer trade organization, came to town for the 2024 Brewers Association Hill Climb to meet with state representatives and advocate on behalf of  small and independent breweries.

More than 100 brewery representatives, guild leaders, and supplier partners participated with legislators a wide array of topic impacting the craft beer biz including support for the USPS Shipping Equity Act, which removes the the prohibition on shipping alcoholic beverages through US Postal Service, the CHEERS Act, bipartisan legislation to help restaurants, bars, and other hospitality businesses that operate draught beer systems, as well as other important issues like increased funding for hops and barley research.

Before the organized hill climb, attendees heard a state of the industry update from the BA’s vice president of strategy and chief economist, Bart Watson; Lester Jones, the National Beer and Beverage Distributors’ analytics and chief economist; and Andrew Heritage, Beer Institute’s chief economist.

They were also given an overview of the 2024 election by Katie Marisic, BA senior director of federal affairs, and a regulatory update from BA general counsel Marc Sorini.

At the 190+ meetings that took place, members of Congress and their staff learned firsthand about the issues impacting breweries in their state and congressional districts and connected with industry leaders.

American Craft Beer applauds this annual effort. Events like the BA hill climb are fantastic opportunities for guilds and brewery owners to build and maintain relationships with their federal elected officials.

With more than 9,500 breweries and 190,000+ direct jobs generated by the industry, the hill climb gives a voice to issues that in many ways are crucial to the survival of the craft beer biz.

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