It looks like Minnesota craft beer fans who thought they could look forward to Sunday growler sales can think again.

Eleventh-hour opposition emerged late last week over potential contractual workday concerns from Teamsters who didn’t participate in the public-meeting process, don’t move growlers and don’t work Sundays.

Demand from a beer-savvy public, thirsting for a quality product steeped in the local consciousness, has elevated craft beer to the fastest-growing segment in the entire American market. It is remarkable to think Minnesota is the fastest-growing market within the fastest-growing demographic in the American beer scene today.

The state licensed 17 new breweries in 2013. Craft brew production operations popped up all over the Twin Cities as well as in Duluth, Moorhead, Cold Spring and Goodview. Five breweries were licensed in Minneapolis alone last year. Statewide, there are now more than 60 licensed breweries. The number has tripled in the past five years.

There is a new consciousness among enlightened legislators like Sen. Roger Reinert, DFL-Duluth, and Rep. Jennifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie; local beer enthusiasts; and the public in general, which watches caravans of Minnesota motorists crossing over the state line every Sunday to buy beer that just as easily could have been sold locally.

Tourists like to take things back from the places they visit. Castle Danger Brewery is slated to open its downtown Two Harbors taproom this summer. It will be an immediate and popular destination. No Sunday growler sales will mean people who ride the North Shore Scenic Railroad from Duluth to Two Harbors on Sundays will leave that great little brewery empty-handed.

In a year when the Legislature is focusing considerable attention on repealing obsolete and antiquated laws, it’s unfortunate the Teamsters, stuck in a Prohibition-era mindset, seem intent on working against the growth of this great new industry. The Teamsters rather could be spending its considerable political clout to support it.

Andrew Schmitt of St. Paul is director of Minnesota Beer Activists (www.mnbeeractivists.com).