TALLAHASSEE

Craft brewers lost another skirmish with the established beer industry on Monday.

The Senate Rules Committee backed a bill (SB 1714) in a 9-4 vote that would require the smaller brewers to buy back their bottled products to sell on premises once the breweries reach a certain size.

Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, sponsor of the measure, advanced a revision that did give the growing craft beer industry more leeway to sell its products. But craft brewers who packed the meeting room said the revised bill adds too many restrictions and that they would prefer existing law to the proposal, which is now ready for a floor vote.

Four senators sided with the craft brewers, including Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, but they were outvoted.

“I’m a big believer in not creating winners and losers and I see a room full of people here who are losers if this passes,” Margolis said. “That doesn’t seem right to me.”

Stargel said she has been unable to find a middle ground with the craft breweries and that her bill was designed to eliminate “ambiguities” in the existing law that has allowed the craft brewers to manufacture and sell their products on-site outside of the traditional three-tier alcohol distribution system that separates manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

“I support the three-tier system,” Stargel said. “At the same time, I do want this new craft industry to grow.”

In the latest version of the bill, craft brewers could sell bottled, canned and kegged beer at their breweries, as long as they did not manufacture 2,000 kegs or more per year. Additionally, all craft brewers would be able to sell their products on tap and in 64-ounce growlers.

If they exceeded 2,000 kegs, the brewers would have to sell their bottled and canned products to distributors and then buy them back if they wanted to sell them on premises. However, the bill did eliminate a controversial provision that would pay the distributors even though the bottled beer was never moved from the craft brewery.

The bill also would prohibit craft brewers from transferring their beer from one brewery to another for sales.

“It’s not everything the craft brewers can do today, but it’s a lot,” said Mitch Rubin, a lobbyist for the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association, which represents the beer distributors and supports Stargel’s bill.

In their testimony, the craft brewers said the 2,000-keg limit was too low and would thwart the industry’s development.

David Doble, a co-owner of the Tampa Bay Brewing Co., said 14,000 kegs was a “break even” point for a brewer, calling the 2,000-keg limit “absolutely nothing.”

He said the legislation was designed to make the smaller craft brewers compete on the same level as a beer giant like Anheuser-Busch, which produces hundreds of millions of kegs per year. And he said it could threaten his company’s plan for a $5 million expansion in Tampa.

“These people are going to crush us,” Doble said. “We’re going to lose a lot.”

Joey Redner, owner of Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, said his company -- Florida’s largest craft brewer -- sold $581,000 of canned and bottled products last year on site and would fall outside the 2,000-keg limit.

If the bill passed, it would mean $175,000 of that would go to the distributors, meaning less money for Redner to hire new workers or buy new equipment.

“I’m OK now. I’ll grow,” Redner said. “It’s the little guys coming behind me. You’ve shut that road down.”

Stargel said she came up with the 2,000-keg limit after a preliminary review of beer manufacturing records with state regulators. She said she was open to further discussions on the limit.

Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, who voted for the bill, said Stargel’s legislation was trying to define what a micro-brewery is and once it reached a certain size it “now has to play with big boys and play in the three-tier system.”

While the Senate bill is now moving toward a floor vote, a similar measure in the House (HB 1329) remains in a budget subcommittee.