After we passed the appropriate Senate and House committees, the Brewery Modernization Act was put on an unofficial temporary hold. A representative of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board informed us that they wanted some language in our bill to be clarified before it progressed further.
Our people are talking to their people and all that stuff to get the details worked out, but the gist of the matter seems to be taxation. They want to make sure it’s clear that beer sales at the brewery pay all appropriate taxes. Actually, free samples are taxable as well. As I understand it, none of their concerns are anything we would have a problem with – the current version just isn’t clear on a few subjects. We certainly don’t want to promote ambiguous legislation.
The rules on taxes and samples would be the same as are imposed on Alabama wineries.