WORDS Blake Rosen
There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about Stone Brewery setting up their casks in Alabama. California-based Stone wants an east-of-the- Mississippi hub, but in addition to a brewery, Stone wants their eastern base to feature a retail store that sells product directly to the consumer for off-site consumption. New bills have been sponsored in both the Alabama House (HB 581) and Senate (SB 439) in an attempt to bring to Alabama what is projected by Stone to be $100 million dollars in revenue by their fourth year in operation.This seems like a no brainer. A perfect fit for the ever growing craft brewing industry in our state. But is it?
To better understand the current dilemma, first one has to understand distribution laws in the state of Alabama. The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933 and ushered in what has become known as the three tier system of beer, liquor, and wine distribution. As the person responsible for ordering beer for TRUE Restaurant, I do not call Tripp Collins at Back Forty in Gadsden to order my beer. I call Mackenzie at Bama Bud. Tripp is the producer (the first tier), Mackenzie is the distributor (the second tier) and I am the third tier - the point of sale. In this model the consumer never deals directly with the producer. This system was set up to control or limit the public consumption of alcohol in cautious, post-Prohibition America.
As a consumer, one can go to Railyard Brewing Company and sit down to have a pint, but under current Alabama legislation, one cannot purchase a six pack to-go. HB 581 and SB 439 would like to change that. This should be great news for everyone! But there is one major catch. The bills proposed only exempt breweries that produce in excess of 25,000 barrels of beer annually. That is an unreachable number for any current craft brewer in Alabama. The attempt to change the law is an enticement for a large out of state company, but the legislation comes at the expense of the brewers that built Alabama’s beer industry from the ground up.
The Alabama Brewers Guild (ABG) has rightfully spoken out against HB 581 and SB 439, and in a surprising turn of events, so has Stone Brewery. In a statement the Chief Operating Officer of Stone Brewery explained that the company “supports legislation that benefits all craft brewers,” a direct shot at the Alabama legislature. Proposals for possible sites for the east coast brewery location were due March 15 and no comments have been made as to who submitted paperwork or if any one site has an upper hand over another. That being said, one has to respect Stone Brewery’s mentality. Even though they are the 10th largest craft brewery in the country, they have no intention of having the rules changed for them to the detriment of the smaller breweries. While they want to compete against the other craft breweries in their new location, they demand competition on a level playing field.
So what does this all mean for the state of craft brewing in Alabama? Having the clout of a company with the resources of Stone Brewery on the side of the ABG is a big step in the right direction. Anyone who has lived here and enjoyed a non-domestic beer during the last ten years remembers the early struggles of groups like Free the Hops who were instrumental in changing the laws allowing for higher gravity products and the ability to brew beer in the state of Alabama. It was an uphill fight to say the least. Getting national attention as a possible location for the east coast Stone site pushes the hand of legislators to rethink antiquated laws regarding the production and distribution of beer.
The Alabama Brewers Guild struggles daily with blue laws that are no longer in tune with how Alabamians want to consume their products. While Stone Brewery and the ABG may appear to be strange bedfellows - competing against each other for market share while fighting together for equality under the law - in the world of craft beer, it truly is the more the merrier.
Stone Brewery beer can be purchased at Filet and Vine in Cloverdale and is distributed locally by International Wines.