We like to complain about our brewery laws here in Montana (often for good reason), but it is easy to forget Montana does have it better that some. Montana breweries have long been allowed to fill growlers of any size and type for off-premise consumption.  Even the sale of beer for on-premise consumption has been allowed, with limits, since 1999.

Not so much in Georgia.  As Adam Ragusea of Georgia Public Broadcasting writes this week in The Telegraph, Georgia brewers’ efforts to allow breweries to sell directly to consumers are not finding a receptive audience with the state’s legislature.  While breweries may serve free samples (with no limit), they are not permitted to sell beer to consumers for either on or off-premise consumption. Patrons must visit a licensed retailer for that. 

After a bill to allow direct sales failed last year, the legislature convened a committee to address the issue.  After taking testimony at three hearings during late Summer and Fall 2013, the committee released its Final Report of the Georgia Senate Study Committee on Brewpubs and Alcoholic Beverage Tastings.

The Report contains roughly sixteen pages of summarized testimony from persons attending various hearings, zero analysis of the issues, and five recommendations.  The committee does recommend allowing the sale of growlers for off-premise consumption.

Sort of.  The text must be read to be believed:

Growlers up to 64 ounces per-person should be allowed to be sold by brewpubs for off-premises consumption if food was consumed on-premises with the purchase . . . . Specifically: one partially consumed growler per patron may be removed from brewpub premises so long as:

1. The growler contains malt beverages manufactured on the premises; 
2. The patron purchased and consumed a meal on the premises and consumed a portion of the growler containing 64 ounces of malt beverages manufactured on the premises; 
3. The partially consumed growler is capped by the patron and placed by the licensee or its employees in a bag or container that is secured in such a manner that it is visibly apparent if the bag or container has been subsequently opened or tampered with, and a dated receipt for the growler and meal shall be provided by the licensee and attached to the bag or container; and 
4. If transported in a motor vehicle, the bag or container with the capped growler is placed in a locked glove compartment, a locked trunk, or the area behind the last upright seat of a motor vehicle that is not equipped with a trunk.

Now you understand why Adam Ragusea calls this a “doggie bag” of beer.

I call it fake.

Georgia makes some very good beer and even if growlers are not part of the culture yet, someone must have informed the committee that no responsible retailer would allow any patron to do this.  Transporting a partially filled growler causes CO2 to rapidly break out of solution, quickly resulting in flat beer, and exposes the beer to oxygen which quickly degrades quality.*

No, this recommendation only creates the illusion of opening up the state’s laws to fill growlers.  It represents strong protectionism for existing retailers and distributors.  At best, it is merely the age old tactic of starting with a  really crappy option so there is room to negotiate upward.

I understand politics. I understand lobbying. I understand protecting the interests you serve. I do not, however, understand insulting consumers who are fueling a growth industry.

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* Yes, I know you’re already scheming ways to beat the system. Get the growler, take a tiny sip, cap it, and call it a “partially consumed” growler.  Well, you can bet if anyone seriously tries to pass such a law there will be a very long, eye-rolling conversation about enacting a definition of “partially consumed” to prevent this.