Legislative, Government Affairs & Legal Updates

The Brewers Association (BA) has severed ties with longtime New York-based PR firm The Rosen Group. The Colorado-headquartered not-for-profit trade association representing small and independent U.S. craft brewers today announced it has chosen Backbone Media as its new public relations agency of record. Backbone, based in Carbondale, Colorado, supplants The Rosen Group, which had served as the BA’s public relations firm for more than a decade.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Smuttynose and Hop Valley shuffle executives; Boston Beer and Dogfish Head’s merger closes; Deschutes Brewery adds distribution in Indiana, New Jersey; Reyes Holdings sells Reinhart Foodservice for $2 billion; and more news.

Six months after hearing oral arguments in a constitutional challenge to Tennessee’s two-year residency requirement for obtaining a retail liquor license, the United States Supreme Court yesterday struck down a controversial stipulation that had prevented out of state retailers from setting up shop in the Volunteer State.

In the latest Legislative Update: Maine lawmakers vote to reform self-distribution and franchise laws; Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs a law increasing the amount of beer craft breweries can sell directly to consumers; North Carolina passes legislation to sell beer and wine at college sporting events; and Pennsylvania legislators consider a lower sales tax on at-the-brewery sales.

In this week’s Last Call: The House Ways and Means Committee passed a one-year extension of the federal excise tax relief for alcohol producers and importers. Also, U.S. beer shipments declined in May, Deschutes begins selling canned drinking water, Bell’s Two Hearted tops the AHA’s best list, and more news briefs.

An effort to maintain reduced federal excise taxes (FET) on all brewers an importers could take a major step forward tonight. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to extend tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers as part of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 3301) extender bill.

In the latest Last Call: Michigan’s Axle Brewing is searching for a buyer, as the company prepares to close its Ferndale-based taproom at the end of June. Also, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to sign beer-to-go measure into law on June 15, and more industry news.

The Brewbound team hit the 2019 SAVOR event to ask several brewery owners — including James Beard Award winners Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Company — and other industry stakeholders how SAVOR and events like it help elevate the beer category.

In this week’s Last Call: Heineken makes a minority investment in Amsterdam’s Oedipus; Bumble announces plans to open a brick-and-mortar bar in SoHo; the SEC lifts its ban on alcohol sales at sporting events; the future of Breckenridge’s brewpub is uncertain; and more news.

Alcohol producers’ efforts to make excise tax relief permanent reached another milestone today, as a majority of Congress now supports the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA). In a joint announcement, seven alcohol industry trade groups said a bill to permanently enact tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers now has 218 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The the latest Legislative Update: Pennsylvania brewers are on the verge of a sales tax compromise; Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs an alcohol reform bill; Maine brewers and wholesalers seek franchise reform; Illinois’ governor seek beer tax hike; and more notes from the states.

More than half of the top 50 Brewers Association-defined craft brewing companies didn’t grow in 2018, according to data published in the May/June edition of the not-for-profit trade group’s New Brewer magazine. It’s the third consecutive year that at least half of the top 50 regional craft brewing companies — those producing between 15,000 and six million barrels of beer a year — didn’t grow. In 2018, 28 of the top 50 small and independent breweries either declined or remained flat. In fact, just seven companies in the top 20 posted mid-to-low single-digit growth.

The Texas Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional challenge brought by three craft breweries to a 2013 state law that stripped beer companies of the ability to sell their distribution rights to wholesalers. The Institute for Justice, a law firm representing the three craft breweries, called the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case today “a blow to the economic liberty of all Texans.”

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Nearly two weeks after lifting aluminum and steel tariffs imposed against Mexico and Canada, President Donald Trump has reversed course and announced plans to levy a 5 percent duty on all goods from Mexico over immigration — bringing the issue back into the taproom. Plus, North Coast co-founder Mark Ruedrich announces his retirement.