Opinion
We… want… more… BEER!
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If you go to the downtown location of the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company, you can drink the company's wide assortment of self-brewed beers. If you patronize the Great Dane's Fitchburg location, you can do the same.
If you go to the brewpub's new Hilldale location, you can drink beer as well — but not the Great Dane's. That's because a longstanding state law prohibits brewpubs — establishments that brew and sell their own beer on site — from selling their brews at more than two locations. It's time to end this burdensome restriction.
Consumers in Wisconsin have shown a considerable taste for specialized beers from local brewers in recent years. This trend has been fueled by breweries who sell via retail, such as the New Glarus Brewing Company, as well as by brewpubs like the Great Dane. Yet, brewpubs have had to operate under a rule that sharply limits their rewards for being successful. It is not a stretch to say the cap has discouraged potential proprietors from opening a brewpub business, as they know that no matter how tasty their beer, it will never be served at more than two locations.
Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, has proposed legislation to address the brewpub limit. Under his bill, brewpubs could operate up to six locations and brew up to 10,000 barrels a year. Such a bill is certainly a step in the right direction, and it would seem to placate the Great Dane for the foreseeable future.
But whether Mr. Risser's legislation passes or not, the bill is a fundamentally flawed document. Someday, a brewpub will reach the limit of six locations. At that point, the limit of six will be every bit as arbitrary as two is today. Further, with a cap of 10,000 barrels brewed per year, a brewpub is limited if it wishes to operate a pub and sell its beer in retail stores.
We hope lawmakers consider an outright repeal as Mr. Risser's bill goes through the legislative process. Letting market principles determine the size of a brewpub business is something we can all toast to.
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Impeach Risser.
Risser is right here. We wouldn’t want Miller to open its own brewpubs all over the state. Er, at least most of us wouldn’t…