Ohio Craft Brewers Tap New Board Leadership

The member breweries of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association elected seven representatives to the board of directors. Ohio brewers chose to elevate board member Jason Moore of Crooked Handle Brewing Company in Springboro to serve as the association’s vice-president, following the tenure of current vice-president Ali Hovan of HiHO Brewing Co. in Cuyahoga Falls.

Hovan and board secretary Garrett Hickey of Cincinnati’s Streetside Brewery are term-limited, stepping down after six years of service to the organization. Hickey will be replaced as secretary by current board member Melissa Dallas of Upside Brewing in Sylvania. Adam Benner of Land-Grant Brewing in Columbus was re-elected to a third term as the association’s treasurer.

Sitting board members Steve Forman of Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland and Jamey Ratcliff of Sixth Sense Brewing Company in Jackson were each re-elected to their second terms. Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki, co-owner of Penguin City Brewing Company in Youngstown, and David Sutula, partner and brewer at Royal Docks Brewing Company in Canton, were elected to their first terms on the Ohio Craft Brewers Association board, assuming the at-large seats vacated by the elevation of Moore and Dallas to officer positions. The newly elected board members will start their two-year terms on Aug. 1 to oversee the Ohio Craft Brewers Association’s education, marketing and advocacy efforts.

The association’s top priority is reform of the Ohio Alcoholic Beverages Franchise Act, a law that traps small and independent breweries in lifetime contracts with beer wholesalers. When the law was passed in 1974, beer wholesalers needed protection from the power and influence of a handful of massive brewing conglomerates. Small breweries did not exist in 1974, but more than 430 are currently operating in Ohio. Meanwhile, wholesalers have consolidated through mergers and acquisitions to become large, powerful companies. Franchise law makes these small, independent breweries subject to the same virtually unbreakable contracts as their huge competitors, creating an imbalance of power between small breweries and the wholesalers they rely on to grow their businesses.

Two bills have been introduced in the Ohio General Assembly – Senate Bill 138 and House Bill 306 – which would exempt breweries making fewer than 250,000 barrels of beer per year from franchise law. The Ohio Craft Brewers Association and its leadership continue to support these bills and urge legislators to pass this common-sense modernization of state law in order to benefit small businesses, local communities and beer consumers.

“Our board of directors represents the diversity of small businesses that make up Ohio’s craft brewing industry,” said Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. “From established breweries who rely on wholesale distributors to move their products across multiple regions to smaller breweries poised to grow and expand in the market, reform of franchise law will benefit the entirety of our industry.”