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The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s more of what’s been happening in the beer world, while you were drinking your way through a late December weekend.
3.2 Beer Sunsets And Sweeping Changes to Colorado Alcohol Laws In The New Year (Denver, CO) – After years of debate, a number of Colorado’s outdated alcohol regulations will change on January 1. According to the Denver Post the state will effectively erase its 3.2 beer law, a Prohibition-era restriction that banned hundreds of supermarkets and convenience stores across Colorado from selling full-strength beer.
Under the new rules, some 1,600 stores will have their licenses automatically upgraded, allowing them to replace what has become known over the decades as 3.2 beer (which is actually 4% ABV or less) with a upgraded range of higher octane beers that up to this point could only be sold in the Colorado liquor stores.
Among the other changes taking effect in Colorado on January 1…
- All forms of alcoholic beverages will be allowed in most state parks. Full-strength beer, wine and champagne will be allowed in Denver parks. Currently, those areas are limited to 3.2 beer.
- Convenience and grocery stores with beer licenses can start selling full-strength beer, including nearly 200 in Denver alone.
- Grocery and convenience stores can start delivering beer, as liquor stores already do.
- A limited number of additional grocery stores will be allowed to sell liquor and wine.
Words To Drink By (Denver, Colorado) – “Grocery and convenience stores are likely to increase their beer orders by a cumulative 30 percent in 2019.” Steve Findley, head of the Colorado Beer Distributors Association.
Craft Brewers Push For Legislative Changes In 2019 (Charleston, SC) – Relatively late to the craft beer game, South Carolina is now “home to 76 breweries and brewpubs, with approximately 30 new breweries under construction or in the planning process” according to the Charleston Post and Courier.
With South Carolina’s Craft Beer industry currently making a $650 million impact on the Palmetto State according to South Carolina Brewers Guild, brewers are eyeing four changes to state law in that will help the industry in 2019…
- Lowering the state’s beer tax from 77 cents per gallon closer to the national average of 29 cents per gallon.
- Letting the breweries transfer their beer from one location to another without having to go through a distribution company.
- Allowing the breweries to open standalone taprooms, where they could serve their beer without brewing it on-site.
- Removing a 288-ounce limit on how much beer customers can buy from a brewery to-go.
