Brewer’s Brouhaha: The Battle of Local Breweries

Local Breweries Fight to Free Themselves From State Restrictions

On December 5, 1933, the 18th Amendment was officially repealed and Prohibition ended, much to the joy of most Americans. The new legislation allowed individual states to create their own laws regarding the reintroduction of alcohol to the country. In Florida, that meant a “Three Tier System” to prevent monopolies. It said, in essence: you can brew beer, you can sell beer, and you can distribute beer… but you can’t do all three.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the unintended consequences have hurt independent craft breweries, of which there are now 374 in Florida, including our hometown breweries Titanic and Bay 13. Those independents were not around back when the law was created to dampen any monopolistic tendencies by 1930s-era mainstays like Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors.

Currently, independent breweries in Florida that wish to distribute their wares, even if it’s to a restaurant or bar across the street, must use a distributor to do so. These contracts are also deemed permanent, meaning that virtually nothing can be done for the brewer to get out of them — even if the distribution company is sold or can no longer work locally. If a bar down the block ran out of Bay 13’s “Merv” pilsner, for instance, the brewery couldn’t just pack up a keg and bring it over. The distributor must come get it, process it at their facility (wherever that may be), and then bring it to the bar. This can take days, if not weeks, and isn’t cheap either.

Bay 13 Brewery’s head brewer, Greg Berbusse, is from Arkansas, where laws have been updated to allow brewers to distribute up to 60,000 barrels of their own beer. Thirty-eight other states have made their own changes, but Florida is not one of them.

“That’s proof that it can be done in the state of Florida and the economy won’t collapse,” Berbusse says. “As far as everything else, we’re just asking for stuff to be cleaned up and to be able to negotiate with our distributors.”

Bay 13 is a member of the Florida Brewers Guild, which is advocating for four main changes: 1) self-distribution, allowing local breweries to distribute their own beer; 2) franchise law reform, which will eliminate “contracts for life” with distributors; 3) brand registration reform, which will make it unnecessary for every single variation of a beer recipe to be registered in the state – a costly expense; and 4) equitable licensing fees, so that “money will be collected from [smaller breweries] on a level commensurate with what we’re actually producing,” says Berbusse.

The proposed updates would allow breweries to save considerable costs, meaning that consumer prices could go down. “It’s going to keep more money that you spend at your favorite brewery there,” says Berbusse. “It could help lower the cost [of beer]. And it’s money [we] can use to hire somebody else, make improvements, and open the door for more economic development in our local community, as opposed to that money going out of state.”

So, if you want cheaper beer, write to your representative to support Bay 13, Titanic, and other small, independent Florida breweries.