The Alabama Brewers Guild in Birmingham has created a list of proposals to help the Alabama Alcohol Beverage Study Commission in its quest to make the state's alcohol laws competitive and consistent across the U.S.

The Alabama Legislature gave final approval in late April to form a commission to look at other states' alcohol laws related to the three-tier system and licensing. Co-chaired by Rep. Alan Harper and Sen. Paul Sanford, the commission will visit North Carolina and Colorado this fall and hear from constituents during three public meetings in July.

The ABG has examined alcoholic beverage laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to develop a guide they believe will benefit limited-production breweries and brewpubs if implemented.

"Our proposals would represent some big, positive changes for these Alabama businesses, but they are all pretty common allowances for craft breweries throughout the country," said ABG Executive Director Dan Roberts.

What the brewers want

The proposals come about a month after the demise of ABG's third off-premises brewery bill, which would have allowed breweries and brewpubs to sell up to a gallon's worth of beer per day, per person, in portable containers for customers to take home. The measure died without a vote.

Here is a summary of what ABG has proposed to the commission:

Create a single craft brewer license

Permit on- and off-premise direct beer sales

Allow self-distribution

Conduct retail sales

If a single craft brewer license is not created, ABG suggests the commission makes changes to the Alabama Brewpub Act, including:

Allow brewpub licensees to conduct direct sales

Allow brewpub licensees to package

Increase the production cap

Remove the requirement

Remove the requirement

Allow brewpub licensees to self-distribute

To read the full document and see ABG's suggestions for alternative proposals, click here.

Economic impact on Alabama



"I am confident the commission will strongly consider our proposals, but there is a lot of room for them to work in," Roberts said. "The proposals as written are very general in nature. We didn't recommend limitations or restrictions, for example, although we believe some limits may be appropriate.

"We respect the commission and their decision-making process, so we wanted to start off with some suggested approaches without going into the details."

Earlier this year, ABG commissioned a report from Jacksonville State University to determine how growler sales would affect Alabama's economy. The study found ABG's Brewery Jobs Bill would create 655 jobs, generate $12.3 million in tax revenue and create $100 million in total economic output within three to five years.

[Related: Craft beer continues to climb in Alabama]

Othni J. Lathram, director of the Alabama Law Institute and chief of staff for the commission, said he appreciates how extensive ABG's proposals are and the supporting information contained.

Public meetings this month

"The work of the commission is still in the 'information gathering' stage," he told AL.com Wednesday. "We have been doing a good bit of research and collecting information from a number of sources."

Lathram said the next phase will include public meetings in Mobile, Hoover and Huntsville to hear from "anyone interested in voicing a perspective on these issues."

The meetings will be held:

Mobile

Hoover

Huntsville

Meaningful changes to state law

"I think it is very important for all interested persons to participate in the public hearings this month because it is a great way to engage legislators when they have set aside time to focus on this single issue," he said. "That is a tremendous opportunity since legislators will not have all of competing issues and time constraints that exist during a legislative session."

Roberts plans to ask one or two area brewery owners to speak at each hearing. He hopes to have a cross section between the state's larger breweries, startups and brewpubs.

The ABG feels confident Alabama is "potentially on the verge" of making significant changes to its alcohol laws, Roberts added.

"I believe this commission wants to seriously study these laws," he said. "We're also having some very meaningful talks with our distribution partners about potential changes. I'm hopeful that we will have meaningful reform in 2016."