2006-10-24

Mich Laws Stiffle Beer Business

Nadir will agree with me in opposing stupid Michigan laws which stiffle small businesses from producing and distributing craft beer, in the name of protecting the big producers of stupid commercial beer. Specifically:

1. One law limits the number of brew pubs one company can own.
2. Another law requires a brewer to hire another company to distribute its beer.

The big stupid commercial brewers do not operate any "brew pubs", which are restaurants that brew their own beer. The more people eating and drinking at brew pubs, the fewer people drinking crappy big beer (Bud, Corona, Heniken, etc.). If Nadir and I operate a brew pub, we can only open two more, for a total of three. Why would a law limit us? The people most likely to open a brew pub in my area are people who already operate one somewhere else. How does Nadir and my opening a fourth brew pub harm other people in Michigan?

And if Nadir and I want to get our beer into bottles and into stores, we can't deliver it ourselves, in our own SUVs and vans. We have to contract with a certified distributer. But those distributers will not contract with us, because in the begining we will not do enough volume to matter to them, busy as they are distributing horrible commercial beer. So how can we get a start? How will it harm other Michiganers if Nadir and I deliver our own beer to area stores?

1 comment:

Paul Hue said...

Whatever the citizens have to fear by overturning these two laws, the article notes that Oregan lacks these laws, with these outcomes:

1. None of the problems that the law proponents warn against have materialized.

2. Whereas in Michigan only about 1 in 100 beers consumed is a microbrew, in Oregon it is 1 in 3.