03/05/2024
No offense to my distributor friends, but small biz needs support too. Some really antiquated laws that are keeping some really talented folks from achieving all that they deserve. KS lawmakers need to hear from us.
Fightin’ the power on a Monday, Brent Anderson is back in the state capital Topeka with fellow KC-area Kansas craft breweries like Discourse Brewing and Sandhills Brewing to press the case for bill SB511. This would repeal an antiquated Kansas law preventing us from distributing our own products. We brought it up here a few weeks back when the effort got started (props to Sean at Willcott Brewing Company & Taproom -Holton and Kansas Craft Brewers Guild for that), but now it’s in high gear and we’re pedal to the metal to get it passed by making our case to legislators.
As a reminder, the current status quo is this:
Kansas is one of only 10 states left where small craft breweries cannot self-distribute.
To sell our beer in restaurants, bars and other licensed establishments, we are forced to first enter into contractual arrangements with middlemen distributors. They then own our beer and are not obligated to push it to retailers. Even if a restaurant across the street from our taproom wanted our beer, we couldn’t walk a keg over.
This is not to demonize distributors, they serve a larger purpose for brewers who operate in volume and want to have broader reach. For breweries like us who are oriented around our taproom and operate locally, however, it prevents us from growing at all. It’s a small business issue to us, and we’re just trying to level the playing field where we can all work hard to make more Kansas products available. Currently, only 2% of beer sold in Kansas is made in Kansas. You read that right.
See the link in our bio for more info on the bill and ways to contact your local legislators and otherwise lend your support to our efforts. We sure as hell appreciate it.
