Growler mania

Out West, in Big Sky country, folks want some clarity on legal aspects about selling growlers.

The question on the floor in Montana is who can legally sell 'em. Here in the Garden State, Beer-Stained Letter sort of put that question to New Jersey regulators, (specifically, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control).

The answer is: If you're licensed to sell by the pint, as in you're a bar owner, you can fill and sell growlers. Also, some packaged goods stores have additional licensing that allows growler sales. Brewpubs may seem like a special case, but they fall within the category of bars and taverns.

This quest for an answer about Jersey growler sales results from what seems like some of the larger packaged goods stores jumping into the business of draft beer by the half-gallon or 2-liter jug. Not to mention the bars that have capitalized on sales of to-go draft beer. So we fired off a quick inquiry to ABC.

And here are the numbers Trenton provided:

As of December 2010, New Jersey had 473 package goods stores licensed to sell growlers. (It seems like a high number, but that's the count ABC provided. It doesn't mean all 473 licensees are doing growlers.)

As of December 2010, the state had 5,665 bars that could fill growlers at their taps and sell them over bar.

Growler mania.

More on beer & taxes & cash-strapped states

At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little, here's more talk on the topic of state governments in serious financial holes and looking at whose pockets they can raid without voter backlash ...

Pennsylvania beer writer Lew Bryson noticed in the Philadelphia Inquirer recently a letter to the editor urging the Keystone State to "substantially" boost taxes on beer, wine and liquor to help keep Pa.'s fiscal house in order.

The letter writer hails from a Philly 'burb, and we're going to assume that the individual is one of the everyday people, not someone with a temperance league calling behind his urging a bump in the sin tax in the name of salvation. (Worth noting: Goodman Lew didn't take the suggestion lying down and fired off a rebuttal to the Inky's opinion page.)

Anyway, here's where things lean toward scary: Joe Street-level urges his lawmakers to ramp up beer taxes, 'cause that product and its relatives deserve it. Lawmakers, with less than seaworthy vessels in choppy financial straits, may be inclined to listen to such mumbo-jumbo because it's not about the sales tax, nor income tax.

More scary: New Jersey's in stormy seas, and its vessel has a $2.8 billion gash in it right now, and that's just the current budget we're sailing under, never mind the one that has to be christened July 1 with an even keel.

Cap'n Corzine says we're taking on water and we're hard-pressed to find a port in this perfect storm, which includes an election year for the Garden State. Sales tax and income tax are historically hands-off territory anyway (barring that one sales tax hike Corzine bet his political career on in 2006), and they'll be doubly so in 2009. Though we haven't seen a beer tax hike pitched for the Garden State yet, that's no reason to think it's not on the table.

Reminder: The fiscal 2010 budget proposal goes public March 10th.

Summary: One of the engines that has conked out on the $$ New Jersey is the sales tax. Collection has sunk like a lead weight, our ship, like others, has been battered on the rocks of this recession (and ours was listing to begin with).

To repeat past posts: Think not of raising beer taxes, like Oregon has pitched and that fellow in Pa. who seems to think it's a capital idea. Instead, overhaul the regulations for brewers, meaning get behind them and help grow the industry, instead of standing in the way. Allow brewpubs to diversify their brewing, grant production brewers the same freedoms as wineries to sell retail. In short, raise revenue by having more brewers selling more beer, not by burdening the few, and ultimately us, the consumer, with higher prices.

Holy flurcking shnit!!!

Hey homebrewers, do you know your ABC?

Yeah, those state beer police you never thought you had to worry about when you struck a mash in your back yard.

Turns out the State of New Jersey requires a permit to brew at home, 15 bucks. Son of a &%$@$!!! This is something we stumbled across while poking around on the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s Web site.

Here's the form in all it's glory, but you can also find online here.

First off, do they enforce this? Thankfully, apparently (or hopefully) not. Haven't read about, nor heard of, anyone getting pinched for it. No one we initially asked today knew about it. And we never, ever had one, nor did the nice folks at the Red Bank homebrew supply shop on Monmouth Street ever say “you need this” when they sold us the starter kit 15 years ago. (For the record, we didn’t call ABC about it. Not going to, either. Beyond this blog post, why alert them to an army of homebrewers defying them?) However, Dan Soboti of the Gaslight brewpub in South Orange, which also has a homebrew supply shop, says the permit has been around for quite some time, but shop owners aren't required to check patrons for them. Dan says they keep copies on hand for patrons to deal with on their own. (For the record, Beercrafters in Turnersville was unaware of it.)

We thought it may have been something new (1/08 – January 2008? – appears in small print below the signature line), but then it seems old. Who except the most Internet/graphically challenged person would create a modern application form using ugly-ass Courier New as a typeface? (FYI: Courier New resembles typewriter fonts, that's old school, baby.)

Secondly, what the f*%k?!?! How is it the State of New Jersey can shake you down to use your kitchen and back yard for the same ingredients as bread, just because you’re adding yeast at a different moment? OK, yeah, you intended to make beer from the get-go when you bought 12 pounds of Maris Otter pale malt and a pound of 40 Lovibond crystal, but still, what the f*%k?!?! In your own home? In this country? In a state with Colonial/Revolutionary heritage, where making beer at home is damned near birthright handed down by Founding Fathers? Richard Stockton and William Paterson are probably rolling over in their graves (assuming anyone in Ben Franklin's orbit automatically tipped a tankard).

Thirdly, it gets worse. Read the permit: The beer you make is for consumption only at the address where you made it. So if enforced, that could mean no giving it to friends, taking it to parties, or son of a &%$@$!!! going to Homebrew Day! (The application even asks if you have any ownership stakes in or employment at a brewery, and requires it be named.)

Consider this a tax (voluntary, if unenforced) on homebrewers (and home winemakers, because guess what, there’s a permit for that, too! Son of a &%$@$!!!). Not to mention an intrusion into your home. Or more cynically, it's a backdoor tactic for knowing who's got booze so the Nanny State can ferret out anyone who has the capacity to serve to minors. But we won't go there.

Enforced or not, it needs to go, be stricken from the books. Everyone knows New Jersey is broke, but hitting homebrewers for an apparently one-time 15 bucks ain’t gonna cover the red ink by any stretch of the imagination. Or fund ABC.

New Jersey's commercial beer regulations are known to be overbearing, business-strangling and otherwise screwed up. But what the f*%k?!?!