Please contact Governor Scott’s Office and tell hin you support a VETO FOR House Bill 961

As Tampa Bay Beer Week is winding down, and the buzz from Hunahpu’s Day and Hunahpu Hangover Day is starting to fade, there has been a bill stalking its way through the back rooms of Tallahassee threatening to help one brewery in its quest to squash competition from small and independent breweries.

“The Glassware Bill” might be memorable to Floridians as one large megabrewer’s attempt to flood the market with branded glassware (mainly shaker pint glasses) in an attempt to garner free advertising and benefits to bars and restaurants.

THIS BEER IS REARING ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN AND IS ABOUT TO BECOME LAW. It is sitting on the governor’s desk right now!

The best way to stop this bill is to contact Governor Scott and urge him to veto HB 961! See the bill’s full text here.

Why is HB 961 bad for Florida’s Craft Breweries?

According to the language of the bill, a brewer may give a vendor (bar or restaurant) up to 10 cases per year of branded glassware. 10 CASES PER BAR/ RESTAURANT. Multiply that by the number of bars and restaurants in Florida, and only one brewer can afford to give away 10 cases of glassware per establishment. Small and independent breweries are startup business and do not have the funds to order massive amounts of branded glassware. Small breweries are generally family-run businesses that are trying to get a dream off the ground and cannot afford to give away thousands of glasses, especially when many small brewers urge bartenders to serve their glasses in specialty glassware.

Don’t the brewers support this bill?

NO. Brewers overwhelmingly oppose this bill, including the Florida Brewers Guild (Florida’s Craft Brewers), the Beer Industry of Florida (MillerCoors Distributors), and the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association (AB InBev Distributors).

Won’t free glassware encourage bars and restaurants to pour beer in proper glassware?

This is a fallacy. In reality, many beers show better and give off more aromatics in a special glass like a snifter or an IPA glass. These glasses are generally more expensive to make than a standard shaker pint. The shaker pint (which is regarded as an inexpensive glass to pour beer in, but not optimal for almost any beer style) is the least expensive option if a brewer is going to have thousands or millions of glasses made to be given away

The shaker pint is also the easiest glass to stack. Most bars and restaurants have limited space to store glassware, and shaker pints are stackable and they allow bar staff to store 4-5 glasses on a shelf that may only hold 1-2 snifters or tulip glasses.

Why are free glasses bad for brewers?

Many small and independent breweries are only distributed in kegs, so their beer is poured from a draft system in a bar or restaurant. If that bar or restaurant is allowed to accept donations of glassware from brewers who can afford it, then that glassware will more than likely not be glassware from an appropriate brewery and will advertise for the competition. As a small startup brewery, this kind of consumer confusion can make it challenging for the consumer to remember the brewery or beer name.

Free glasses are great in theory, but in practice they will hurt small and independent breweries and encourage their beer to be poured in glasses branded with another brewery’s name, in the wrong style of glass, and give unfair advantage to the miniscule cadre of brewers who can afford this, including AB InBev.

Please call Governor Scott’s Office at (850) 488-7146, or use this page to make contact. You can also email the Governor’s Aide, Kailey Fairchild at Kailey.Fairchild@laspbs.state.fl.us If you would like, please feel free to use the letter I have below.

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Governor Scott,

Good Day. I am a concerned supporter of Florida’s small and independent breweries, and I am deeply concerned for the welfare of my local breweries should HB 961 become law – I urge you to veto HB 961 and prevent it from becoming law.

This bill would allow for up to 10 cases of glassware to be given to a bar or restaurant from a brewer. This law would provide an unfair advantage to large brewers that can afford to donate thousands of glasses to establishments throughout the state. Florida’s small and independent breweries would be hurt by this law and would not be able to compete with brewers like AB InBev, a foreign-owned company, that could afford to make glasses for every bar or restaurant in the state.

I am watching and anticipating your support of the state’s over 250 small and independent breweries. These brewers are small businesses and I urge you to support them by vetoing HB 961.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,