Additional Blogs of Interest

In the United States today, there are more than 7,000 craft breweries. Even so, those 7,000-plus breweries produce only a small percentage of beer sold. Accordingly to the Brewers Association – a nonprofit trade association that represents the interests of many small (production of 6 million barrels or less per year), independent (less than 25% non-craft owned) brewers, beer production in 2018 hit 194,278,588 barrels, 13% of which was attributed to craft breweries, 18% to imports, and a whopping 68% to other “big beer” domestics (Miller-Coors, Anheuser-Busch InBev (“ABI”), and the like).

Following Prohibition’s repeal in 1933, the regulation of commerce in alcohol was widely delegated to the individual states. Save for broad constitutional parameters and minimal Federal alcohol laws (such as the 1986 National Minimum Drinking Age Act), the states and their localities possess power to regulate alcohol from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer and everywhere in between.