Beer laws: BWS Episode 82

[podcast] This week’s show might be completely consumed with discussions about what when on at Legislative Day in Annapolis this week. I was in town representing Shore Craft Beer, which partnered with the state and the brewer’s association to promote breweries as a destination during the month of February (they’re calling it FeBREWary and I am contractually obligated not to comment upon that further). I went to talk about promoting beer and instead heard about beer laws.

Beer laws aside, I got to meet with some of the local reps, who were cool, and I also got to watch the brewers yell at the state appointed chemists who are in charge of figuring out how to best regulate spent grain.

You read that right.

Although nearly every beer producing state in the Union has exempted breweries from regulations about state grain, Maryland has decided to reinvent the wheel, doing their own studies and re-writing their own legislation. The brewer’s aren’t happy. Also, some of them were a little scared as many begin to compete for tap space for the first time.

Tap Space

If you’ve been following, you probably know our take on this, but let’s pretend you are new. Growth isn’t something that every brewery needs. We are fortunate that the breweries here have been quite successful selling their beer locally. Some have expanded, and some have gotten pretty big, but except for Dogfish Head, no one is locked into massive growth.

This is a good time to shout out Chesapeake Brewing Company. They’re getting ready to open a restaurant and craft beer taproom in Annapolis that only serves craft beer from the Eastern Shore. They’re going to do very well, and they deserve to.

Farm to Keg beers

Another of our favorite topics, the brewpub, gets a new old twist in this trend of brewers serving beer on their farms.

Changes at UnTappd

When Shore Craft Beer put together its festival last year, I reached out to UnTappd for promotion help, or reallyl just to check and see if it was affordable. It totally was. They’re going a great job there and, with the money to grow, will be able to provide an even better service to the beer drinking and the brewery promoting community.