California Brewers Sue Governor Gavin Newsom

And it seems to us, they’ve a right to be pissed….

Here’s the deal….

With COVID-19 infection rates on the rise in California, Governor Newsom and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) updated the state’s COVID-19 guidance over the summer creating a massive imbalance in how winery tasting rooms and brewery tasting rooms are treated.

“The state’s 4,000-plus wine tasting rooms were suddenly given the additional privilege not having to serve meals,” according to Food & Wine, “a change that didn’t extend to the state’s 1,050 breweries.”

In a December 17^th suit filed in Los Angeles federal court, the California Craft Brewers Association contends that requiring beer manufacturers to serve food as a prerequisite to keeping tasting rooms open, but exempting similarly situated wineries, is “arbitrary, irrational and unconstitutional.”

“Even wineries that share a tasting room with beer manufacturers may continue to sell and serve wine to customers without food, while the beer manufacturer is prohibited from selling beer to the same customers in the same tasting room unless it also sells food,” the lawsuit states according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

“To date, Defendants have not presented any valid basis for treating beer manufacturers different than wineries,” the filing continues. Apparently, one of the few explanations the CDPH did give was that they “determined that mixing between greater numbers of people from differing households was more likely at breweries,” the suit states.

“When it is time to begin the reopening of businesses in 2021, we need to ensure that a single industry is not arbitrarily divided based on unfounded assumptions,” CCBA executive director Tom McCormick argued in the filing…

“We want to ensure that the craft brewing industry has the same privileges and the same pathway as other alcohol beverage manufacturers to reopen, re-employ and re-build next year.”