From brewery to bar stool:
Our state regulates alcoholic beverage commerce through a three-tiered distribution and licensing structure that allows government agencies to ensure that all required taxes are paid. It is separated into three categories (obviously):
- Manufacturing/Importing: lets producers make the beer, wine, etc. and bring it into the state (if it’s not already here)
- Wholesaling: allows producers to sell alcohol to retailers for resale
- Retailing: authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages to the public
If you have already seen this timeline in today’s newsletter, just scroll down.
- 1998: Thomas Creek Brewery opened as the first brewery in the Upstate.
- 2007: The owners of Thomas Creek spearheaded The Pop the Cap law, which increased alcohol by weight (ABW) for beer from 5% to 14% abw (which is 17.5% alcohol by volume in consumer terms). This gave us imperial stouts, double IPAs, and other high gravity beers.
- 2010: The Tour and Taste Bill was introduced, where a customer could get 4 sample glasses, totalling 16 oz, at a brewery and take *one* case of beer home.
- 2013: The Pint law increased from the amount a person can consume from 4 taster glasses to 48 oz per person per day.
- 2014: The Stone Law, which was meant to entice Stone Brewery from San Diego to open a brewery here, says that if a brewery offers food and has a DHEC certification (a.k.a. Becomes a brewpub), the 48 oz limit goes away and there is no serving limit beyond responsible serving restrictions.
- Most recently (as in, this year,) the Nonprofit Bill (S.B. 114) allows breweries to give direct donations to charities through wholesalers for nonprofit organizations to sell at special events. This bill also ends the need for volunteers to pour alcohol and allows representatives of the brewery to serve during these nonprofit events. Bigger festivals that aren’t run by nonprofits will still need volunteers to pour.
The second part of this bill relates to brewpubs’ ability to distribute through wholesalers. Many brewpub laws have not changed since 1990’s so the only way brewpubs to have the ability sell beer outside of their facility is to convert their license into a brewery license. Then they can sign with a distributor and sell beer to places like Greenville Beer Exchange or local restaurants. And since breweries are now allowed to sell liquor, the change does not cause many limitations – apart from being able to sell food (but that’s what food trucks are for, right?)
Another bill passed into law in 2017 is the Dram Shop Bill, which requires business owners who sell alcohol after 5 p.m. to have proof of a $1 million liquor liability policy and claim responsibility for monitoring customers’ intake of alcohol. This was set up in order to help victims who are wounded, paralyzed, or killed due to alcohol related crimes (like drunk driving accidents).
