Growler

(FILE PHOTO)

The bill that would allow brewers to sell directly to consumers has passed the Alabama House of Representatives and is one step closer to becoming law.

House Bill 176 passed Tuesday 68-17, with three abstaining from voting. It still needs to pass the Senate.

If passed, the law would:

Allow breweries that make less than 60,000 barrels per year to directly sell up to 288 ounces of its beer per customer per day for off-premises consumption.

Allow breweries to deliver up to two donated kegs of its beer to a licensed charity event.

No longer require brewpubs to open only in historic buildings, historic districts or economically distressed areas.

Currently, breweries can only sell beer for off-premises consumption through a licensed wholesaler.

Dan Roberts, Executive Director of the Alabama Brewers Guild, said he was happy and unsurprised the bill passed quickly because of the extensive research and collaboration that has gone into the bill.

"I think everybody knows this isn't something that somebody just came up with or dreamed up one day," Roberts said. "We spent months working on this, the commission had three public hearings, visited a couple of states, the Alabama Law Institute did a lot of research on best practices."

The bill was introduced to lawmakers last month and mirrored recommendations presented by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Study Commission in January.

"The reality is, there's a lot of beer from outside Alabama that's sold in Alabama, and most of those competing breweries, through no fault of their own, I'm not blaming them, but they can make this revenue for their breweries and use that revenue to make buzz in Alabama," Roberts said. "Basically, we just want the same thing."