Prior to SB63 being passed last year, breweries were not allowed to sell beer directly to consumers, period. What they were allowed to do was provide 'samples' of up to 32 oz total for free to folks who came to the brewery. That's what most breweries did - they'd "sell" a tour or glassware and provide tickets for free samples of beer.
SB63 was introduced last year with the goal of allowing breweries under a certain capacity to actually sell limited amounts of beer for offsite consumption (I believe the initial ask was for 128 oz or so) in addition to allowing for onsite sales. What ended up getting passed was a much more watered down bill but it did allow for breweries to sell tours and give away 'souvenir' beers for offsite consumption. Part of the agreement there was that breweries could sell differently-priced tours and give away different amounts of beer as souvenirs (e.g. you pay for a 2-bottle tour and get 2 bottles to take home, you pay for a 3-bottle tour and get 3 bottles to take home etc.). This was seen as a bit of a win for the brewers as they could now expand their tap-rooms and tour areas and, while not "technically" selling their beer for offsite consumption, effectively sell their beer. A side note - the brewers still pay excise taxes on this souvenir beer even though they're "technically" giving it away.
Anyway... fast forward to late September... the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association (GBWA) had closed door meetings with the Dept. of Revenue and lo and behold, new regulations that contradicted the earlier regulations appeared. Now, breweries were no longer allowed to sell different levels of tour. Understandably, everyone except the GBWA was furious... brewers had spent lots of money expanded their facilities based on the regulations that had been put in place after SB63 was signed and now were cut off at the knees.
There was some good investigative journalism that found that indeed all this had happened at the behest of the GWBA so some of the high-ranking politicians in the state got nervous and started railing at the DoR to reverse it's position. Of course, brewers and the beer community in general were equally pis*ed off and a lot of momentum began to build for a more comprehensive overhaul of the antiquated laws we have here in GA. Lots of people were calling state reps, the DoR, the governor's office etc. so the governor apparently told everyone to get in a room and sort this out.
At the end of the day, we end up right where we were after SB63 was passed and the folks representing the breweries agreed to not propose any legislation this year (which happens to be an election year). We basically lost all momentum we had for real change and next year when we no longer have elections to hold over reps heads, we won't have the leverage we had this year. All in all, I can't see any silver lining to this stupid agreement.
