Legislation would ease limits on breweries

Groups involved in the Montana alcohol industry have developed new legislation that would allow breweries to hold separate licenses and raise the barrel limit for taproom operating hours.

The Montana Tavern Association and the Montana Brewers Association, along with several other industry groups, helped craft the 2015 Montana Brewers Act that they hope will allow state brewers more choices about how to best grow their business.

Rep. Pat Noonan, D-Anaconda, is sponsoring the bill, according to a press release sent Monday night.

The proposed bill would change the process involved in the current three-tiered system that regulates the production, distribution and sale of alcohol in the state.

The current 10,000-barrel limit for breweries would increase to 60,000 barrels, which would allow those breweries to grow beyond the current limit without having to close their tap rooms and forfeit the ability to sell their beer on site.

Brewers exceeding 10,000 barrels would be able to operate “modest tap rooms” with on-premise consumption of no more than 500 barrels annually.

The bill would also allow brewers to co-locate a retail license, which would allow them to sell their product past 8 p.m., the current cut-off time. Currently, license holders can hold a brewing license or a liquor and beer license, not both.

The Montana Beer and Wine Distributors Association, a main industry player consisting of the 22 beer and wine distributors throughout the state, announced its separation from the Alcohol Beverage Coalition in December because of the proposed license stacking, citing concerns about how the bill would affect the integrity of the current three-tier system.

The distributors believed the ability to hold multiple licenses would destroy the fairness of the system, and affect the group economically.