A bill introduced in the state Assembly aims at clearing up the limits of microbreweries in the state.
A bipartisan legislative solution concerning the state’s handling of microbreweries could be on the way.
A bill introduced last week was drafted in response to a special ruling issued in September by Division of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Director David Rible, that brewery owners said would severely hurt their business. After an outcry from microbrewery owners and advocates, Rible rescinded the special ruling.
Some of the provisions of the bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Joe Howarth, R-Burlington, and Wayne DeAngelo, D-Mercer, include:
- Microbreweries would be allowed to hold as many special events on its premises, sidewalk, parking lot, or other areas owned by the brewery without being required to request a special permit. These events include televised or streaming sporting events, yoga and exercise classes and movie, and theatrical events. (The ruling would have limited breweries to 25 a year and permits would have been required.)
- A total of 12 off-premises special events, including beer, music and arts festivals, civic events, races, limited brewery anniversary celebrations, would be allowed per year if a permit is obtained.
- Microbreweries would be required to get permission to hold an event on publicly owned or controlled property.
- Pourers and servers employed by the microbreweries will not be required to be certified by an industry recognized server training program. (The ruling would have required they were.)
- Microbreweries could work with a licensed food vendor to provide food to an establishment — but not run a restaurant on site — as well as give menus to consumers for nearby eateries. (Both would have been banned if the ruling was enforced.)
- Breweries won’t be required to provide a tour to patrons before serving or selling alcoholic beverages to them. (The 2012 law requires this, currently.)
- They’d be permitted to deliver beer to a consumer’s home.
Howarth said he became involved in the process after seeing the special ruling coming down. He, his staff, and Burlington County Freeholder Director Kate Gibbs made a concerted effort to try to change the decision of the ABC because of the effect the ruling was having on microbreweries in the county, they said.
“What the bill does is give somebody a vision, something they can build their business model on,” Howarth said. “It gives them some hope that they will be able to continue to do well. It’s bringing a lot of business into small towns like Medford, Hammonton, and Mount Holly, that bring in foot traffic. We felt it was wrong to squash them before they were even started.”
Howarth and his Democratic counterpart DeAngelo worked on the bill for nearly five weeks before it was officially introduced. The Republican assemblyman says the next step is to gain support from his fellow assemblymen and to see if there will be a sponsor for the bill in the state Senate.
The assemblyman says the bill has received some positive support from the breweries.
“The breweries the few I have been to, I have heard a lot of good things from them,” Howarth said. “Some say it is at least a start and some have said it’s a good idea and to move it forward.”
Megan Myers — co-owner of the Human Village Brewing Company in Pitman, and one of the co-founders of the Independent Brewers of New Jersey — says she is encouraged by the proposed law because it sets the microbreweries more in line with national trends.
“Everybody is cautiously optimistic, but it is going to be up to our ability to have the public to communicate the necessity of this legislation to our legislators,” Myers said. “Across the board, everyone is looking at it as a step in the right direction. We are waiting to see where this is going to go.”
Myers also stated the public’s support for the breweries helped to overturn the special ruling and lead to the new legislation.
“I think it is important that people understand that, in the way they signed the petition and the way they contacted their legislators and spoke up for the breweries had a large part in making sure that government is responsive and understood the direction that they wanted this industry to take,” Myers said. “It’s going to be pivotal moving forward that they continue to support the breweries in this process.”
The bill has been referred to the Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee.
Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
