Georgia breweries pushing for changes to beer laws

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia law requires that breweries can only sell what they make at their breweries to their customers. Anything else that is sold elsewhere must be sold to a distributor.

Thirty-six states have upgraded their brewery laws to make it easier for craft brewery owners. Joseph Cortes with the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild said that the antiquated laws need to be upgraded to keep breweries from leaving Georgia.

“Our laws are antiquated and not suited for a 21st-century consumer in a 21st-century market,” said Cortes.

The group plans to lobby for major changes during the Georgia 2024 Legislative Session.

“We don’t want to see these breweries closed. We don’t want to see what’s often happening as well, that breweries would rather than continuing to invest more in Georgia, go to North Carolina and open another location, or Tennessee which has more favorable laws for small breweries. And we you know, we want to see that investment and have them stay here in Georgia,” said Cortes.

Cortes said that eight breweries have closed in the last six months. One of those is Second Self Beer. Owner Jason Santamaria said Georgia laws make it difficult to turn a profit.

“Breweries are built around communities, we support a lot of nonprofits, we pay a lot of taxes, let us do more of that. If Georgia is really a pro-business state giving businesses the ability to choose what they do is very important” said Santamaria.

Beer is a $1.9 million industry in Georgia. Data shows there are 171 breweries across the state. Despite the demand, data shows that Georgia ranks 44th in terms of breweries per capita.

“We don’t want to see these breweries closed. We don’t want to see what’s often happening as well, that breweries would rather than continuing to invest more in Georgia, go to North Carolina and open another location, or Tennessee which has more favorable laws for small breweries. And we you know, we want to see that investment and have them stay here in Georgia,” said Cortes.

Copyright 2023 WANF. All rights reserved.