Some hard seltzer brands may be excluded from grocery and convenience stores in Utah under an omnibus bill proposed in the state Senate.
Senate Bill 176, which passed its second reading in the chamber on Friday and has been scheduled for a third reading, would relegate sales of hard seltzers containing trace amounts of ethyl alcohol in their flavorings to state-run liquor stores, according to an Associated Press report.
The bill would affect as many as half of the more than 100 hard seltzers available in Utah, including some offerings from a few of the segment’s largest brands Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light Seltzer and Molson Coors’ Vizzy Hard Seltzer. Hard seltzers that use glycol-based flavors will be allowed to remain in grocery and c-stores, Utah Beer Wholesalers Association president Kate Bradshaw told Fox 13 Salt Lake City.
“It is going to be a little bit confusing to consumers why they might see a cherry- or a lime-flavored seltzer in the grocery or convenience store, but that same brand’s watermelon or blackberry flavor is going to be in the state liquor store,” Bradshaw said.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, affected hard seltzers include certain flavors of A-B’s BonViv Spiked Seltzer (black cherry, coconut pineapple, cranberry, grapefruit, lemon lime), Bud Light Seltzer (lemon lime, mango, strawberry), all flavors of Pompette Hard Seltzer, Truly’s iced tea flavors (lemon tea, peach tea, raspberry tea, strawberry tea), and 13 of Vizzy’s 16 flavors.
Utah’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) sets the number of off-premise stores to the state’s population. One store is permitted for every 48,000 citizens, which amounts to about 68 stores for Utah’s population of 3.2 million people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Utah also grants licenses to more than 100 package agencies to sell packaged beer, wine and spirits for off-premise consumption “in communities too small to warrant the establishment of a state store,” according to the DABC website.
The loss of grocery and c-store access may make Utah an unattractive market for hard seltzer brands. Utah already has some of the country’s most restrictive alcohol regulations. In 2019, it began allowing sales of beer up to 5% ABV at grocery and c-stores, which also included most hard seltzers.
Also included in S.B. 176 are name changes to the state’s alcohol regulation bodies. The DABC would become the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission would become the Alcoholic Beverage Services commission. The bill also proposes modernizing payment systems at state-run liquor stores to include mobile payment options such as Apple Pay, according to FOX 13 Salt Lake City.
Alaska Considers Limited Taproom Licenses to 1 per 12,000 Residents
Alaska’s state Senate has passed a bill that would make it harder for breweries to open taprooms in the state.
Senate Bill 9, which has advanced to the state House of Representatives, would quadruple the number of residents required per taproom permit. Alaska law currently allows towns to issue one brewery taproom license and one distillery taproom license for every 3,000 people.
The bill would raise that to one license of each type for every 12,000 people. Licenses for bars and packaged stores would be unaffected, and the state would not limit the number of taproom-less distilleries and breweries.
Only five municipalities in the state have more than 12,000 people (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Knik-Fairview and College), according to 2020 U.S. Census data. Alaska has 51 craft breweries, according to the Brewers Association. Those with licensed taprooms would likely be allowed to continue operations, but new breweries would be excluded from opening taprooms in those same municipalities.
“The likelihood of any new taprooms being permitted to open in most of Alaska’s small or medium-sized cities would be very low,” Jason Davis, owner of Homer-based Sweetgale Meadworks, wrote in a letter to the editor of the Juneau Empire. “Homer, for example, would have to grow in population from 6,000 to 36,000 before another brewery or winery would be permitted.”
Groups supporting the increase include bar owners, who pay much more for their licenses than the $1,240 the state charges for taproom licenses, and substance abuse prevention organizations, who argued that the state has too many outlets selling alcohol, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The population cap on taprooms was part of a compromise reached between those groups and Alaska’s craft breweries, who were granted later operating hours and the ability to host a limited number of events as part of the deal.
“It’s not necessarily something we’re supportive of, but during the compromise process, that was something that we gave,” Brewers Guild of Alaska president Lee Ellis told the Anchorage Daily News.
Editor’s note: this story was updated at 11:55 a.m. ET on February 22 to include which hard seltzer flavors would be affected in Utah.