2015 bill could change Montana breweries While street sweeping is usually a spring/summer/fall activity, billings street sweeping machines have been dispatched the past few days to taenjoy a meal, visit and take your soup bowl home with yousd2 redistricting team narrows options as others lobby for more diverse schoolseffects on accidents, safety questioned at laurel interchange meetingtuesday temperatures broke recordsabsarokee based bank appoints new president The montana beer and wine distributors recently withdrew from the alcohol beverage coalition as a statement of opposition to a bill set for introduction before the 2015 legislature. The bill would allow brewery owners to buy a retail or on premise license like those held by bar owners in addition to their brewery license so brewers could expand their brewing capacity, business hours and consumption limit. "What we're more worried about than anything is first:Destruction of a very good system and we believe this bill would change the fairness aspect,"Kristi blazer, executive director of montana beer and wine distributors, said. "Ultimately we believe that as a result of the destruction of the system we will be economically affected,"Blazer added. This bill follows a failed attempt in the 2013 legislature by the montana tavern association that would have limited breweries to selling 40 percent of their product in the taproom and 60 percent on the wholesale market.Mta introduced the bill after stating taproom popularity was undermining the state alcohol system. In response, the montana brewers association introduced a bill to study the alcohol licensing after the 2013 session ended. Within the alcohol beverage coalition which included representatives from mta, mba, mb the gaming industry association of montana, the montana restaurant association and the liquor control division of the state department of revenue the three associations deliberated for over a year about a 2015 bill.The distributors association, which blazer said never supported the compromise, withdrew from the coalition in early december. Mba and mta reached a compromise that they hope will stand a chance in front of legislators. "No change puts a lot of breweries in the position in the next couple of years to make the decision:If they want to continue to grow their business in making beer for off premise or close their taproom;They would have to make a choice,"Said josh townsley, president of the montana brewers association and owner of lakeside headquartered tamarack brewing co. A 1999 compromise between brewers, tavern owners and distributors caps montana breweries at 10, 000 barrels of beer per year if the brewery operates a taproom in which their beer is sold.And louis vuitton outlet store uk may not serve any one customer more than 48 ounces of beer per day. If a brewery produces over 10, 000 barrels of beer per year it can provide only free samples in its taproom. According to townsley, several breweries around the state are pushing the 10, 000 barrel limit. "Last session, zero breweries were up against it, this session you probably have four, by next session you could have 10,"Townsley said. To brew more beer for distribution and expand its customer base, a brewery would have to close or alter operations in its taproom. Townsley said no one wants to take the option of expanding at the expense of firing taproom staff and tell customers it is closing. Blazer said the mb are looking into introducing a bill that would raise the 10, 000 barrel limit to a yet undecided number, but would make no other changes. That bill would solve the brewers concerns about expansion, while maintaining separate entities, blazer said.She said no one has agreed to carry the bill yet, but one legislator has expressed interest. The problem with the"License stacking"Bill, blazer said, is that it would create vertical monopolies an entity that controls creation, distribution and sale of a product.Breweries under 10, 000 louis vuitton uk annual barrel production are already allowed to create, distribute and sell beer, but blazer said stacking licenses would allow large breweries to sell their beer at low prices and outcompete smaller producers. "What you end up doing is creating a system where a few rich players are going to dominate,"Blazer said. She said montana is a"Darn good place to be in the beer industry. "Citing a 2014 is the louis vuitton outlet uk genuine survey by the motley fool, a multimedia financial services company, blazer said montana is ranked as the number one beer friendly state.She said the survey stated montana ranks third in per capita beer consumption, third in breweries per capita, first in bars per capita and is tied for the sixth lowest beer excise tax. "You're taking a perfectly good system and you're wrecking it just so some players can have a larger slice of the pie,"Blazer said. "It's the system that we're trying to protect, because we believe that it leads to great beer economy and it leads to treatment of all players in the industry fairly,"She added. Blazer said it was after she felt like those concerns were not being heard that the mb withdrew from the alcohol beverage coalition to make a point. "No one wanted to see the wholesalers walk away from the coalition.They're our partners in this industry, no one's self distributing 10, 00 barrels of beer.The distributors are a key component to the industry as the whole, i wish they were back at the table,"Townsley said. Mike hope, cheap louis vuitton bags uk president of the montana tavern association, echoed townsley's statement that distributors are important to his industry.

Related Articles:

Linked Articles

http://whhya5.ucoz.co.uk/blog/put_your_arm_michael_kors_gia_satchels_in_a_moving_washer/2015-02-11-8

http://whhya5.blogmehr.com/post/7

http://www.friendku.com/blog.php?user=5088&blogentry_id=49295