I was reading another thread today about a small brewery here in Michigan, and the owner was talking about how they only sell on-site because Michigan has the RIDICULOUS 3 tier distribution requirement. What is the purpose of not allowing small breweries to self distribute? I have heard that it was origionally to prevent monopolies somehow, but it seems to me it actually promotes monopolies by favoring the huge corporate breweries that produce enough to afford distribution. Isn't our country supposed to be based on a FREE MARKET ECONOMY? The three tier system pretty much makes it impossible to distribute your product unless you are a gigantic operation that makes a ton of beer. Not only do distributors have huge minimum production requirements for what they'll distribute, but you also have to sell a lot of beer to be able to make money after the distributor takes their cut. I understand that alcohol is a heavily regulated business, but why is it that it is O.K. for a big brewery to sell tons of beer, but not O.K. for a tiny operation to sell a litttle bit of beer? With the distribution requirements, that basically means that for all intents and purposes, operating a small brewery(I'm talking brewery, not brew pub) is illegal. It just seems to go against everything that the American economy is supposed to be. It is a dream of mine to open a small, local production brewery at some point in the future. The sad thing is that I will have to move to a state that allows self distribution to do so. With Michigan's economy in the state that it is, they should be trying to make it as easy as possible for small businesses to start up (and bring tax revenue to the state). But apparently they would rather our beer drinking residents send their dollars to Missouri and Wisconsin (Anheuser-Busch and Miller). Bell's brewery here in Kalamazoo is one of the great microbrewery success stories. And guess what? Under today's laws they never would have opened. They were able to get going back in the 80's because Michigan allowed self distribution back then. Sorry for the long rant, I just can't for the life of me figure out what the 3 tier system is supposed to accomplish, other than protecting the interests of big brewing companies.