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“At the end of the day…you have to ask yourself, who’s running the show? The legislators or the wholesalers?” – Olde Mecklenburg brewery’s John Marrino
A recent bid to raise the beer production limit in North Carolina, which would have allowed the state’s brewers to produce as much as 200,000 barrels of beer before they must enter into a costly distribution contract with state-approved wholesalers, has fallen victim backroom politics of the worst kind.
Unfortunately House Bill 500, which would have raised the cap to 200,000 barrels, was reportedly brutally gutted by state representatives last Wednesday, leaving craft brewers the ability to self-distribute their own beers ONLY if they keep their production volume below 25,000 barrels.
Introduced a mere three weeks ago with broad support from the state’s more than 200 craft brewers, this important legislation (which was spearheaded by Charlotte’s Olde Mecklenburg and NoDa breweries) was doomed by the powerful wholesaler lobby whose political contributions to many state politicians has garnered them tremendous access and influence.
And although we’d expect state representatives to deny any correlation between their campaign donors and the legislation they support (or don’t) – what took place last week in North Carolina is concerning.
According to Democracy North Carolina, wholesalers have made nearly $1.5 million in political contributions to lawmakers over the last four years and the quick collapse of the bill speaks to money well spent on the part of those distribution companies.
This disappointing (although not surprising outcome) will limit the growth of many of North Carolina’s craft brewers, like John Marrino the owner of Olde Mecklenburg brewery whose dreams of building a second brewery have been sidelined, at least for now, by the House Representatives actions.
“At the end of the day,” Marrino told the Charlotte Observer, “you have to ask yourself, ‘Who’s running the show? The legislators or the wholesalers.”
And with the collapse of Bill 500, that answer is unfortunately all too obvious…
