Could Keeping Concessions Help New Breweries? This Website Founder Thinks it Could

Although things altered in many states when it came to how beer laws were handled, that doesn’t mean those changes are for good. If something worked for an existing brewery or helped a new brewery launch … now is the time to work with your state legislators to make it permanent.

That’s the advice that comes from Candace L. Moon, aka “The Craft Beer Attorney.”

“It’s interesting because every state is different and different states have made different concessions,” Moon said, adding that a lot of California breweries, for example, started doing things they’ve always been allowed to do and just never were interested in doing, like shipping direct to consumer.

“I think you’ll have people in every state, having had concessions that were made for the pandemic and realizing how convenient some of these things are,” she said. “What hopefully is going to happen is the public or the breweries realizing how wonderful it is to have things working the way it is now will then reach out to their legislators to change their state law regulations. [Concessions] are not gonna last forever, they have an ending date, and the law is still law, and the only way to change the law is for a legislator to propose legislation to change it.”

Moon, who along with author and craft beer supporter Laura Lodge has launched a new website called StartABrewery.com to help those looking to open a brewery gain insights into the industry, spoke with Brewer and others via a press conference recently.

Moon called on local guilds and state associations along with breweries to talk to legislators to try and get those things changed if they want to see them stay.

“Hopefully, what we’ll even start to see is state to state changes, because I do think that being able to ship direct to consumer in another state — which has also been a huge question I’ve been getting from existing breweries — would be a huge change because that is not something that you can just do right now,” Moon said.

StartABrewery is a collaboration of craft beer industry veterans who are often invited to speak at beer business and brewing education programs. Each has offered to share their knowledge and experience to support the craft beer community as a whole by helping fledgling breweries in planning and those who have successfully launched and are ready to grow.

Moon and Lodge have long been sought out for their industry connections, known for their networking prowess and ability to identify vendors who “speak beer.” Now they’ve poured 35 years of combined experience into their new project to best leverage their network to help the craft beer industry succeed and grow.

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