64 ounce growlers legal in Florida, breweries mixed

It's the day local brew masters and beer lovers have been foaming over.

As of midnight Wednesday, Florida craft breweries can sell their beer in the 64-ounce take-home containers known as growlers.

"Free the jugs!," Old Soul Brewing in Fort Myers posted to Facebook over a picture of its new growler design.

"64 oz. to Freedom," reads the limited edition stainless-steel growlers south Fort Myers' Point Ybel Brewing will be selling when the clock strikes 12 tonight.

It was one of the oddest laws on Florida's books.

Prior to Wednesday, craft brewers could only sell beer for home consumption in 32 and 128-ounce containers, not the 64-ounce size that is industry standard (think of it like the 0.75-liter wine bottle of the craft-beer world) across 47 other states. While certainly a cause for celebration — as if anyone needed a reason to drink more beer — the shift to 64s means little for brewers' bottom lines.

"It doesn't make a huge difference money-wise," said Walter Costello, owner of Point Ybel. "This is just a move toward standardization. It's a stepping stone forward that's been a long time coming."

That stepping stone came with strings attached, though.

As craft brewers had feared, the law with which the 64-ounce legislation was packaged came filled with caveats. It limits how much beer a brewery can share with other breweries without using a distributor. It also bans breweries from delivering beer to locations outside of their taprooms.

"Unfortunately, there were things that came with this growler bill that were not positive for the industry," said Rob Whyte, owner of Fort Myers Brewing Co.

Whyte and his wife/business partner Jennifer Gratz have made multiple trips to Tallahassee lobbying for expanded rights for craft brewers.

While they see plenty of work still to be done, Whyte said consumers are the big winners when it comes to the legalization of 64-ouncers.

His fellow brewers agreed.

"The guy who wants to bring beer to his weekly poker game, the woman who wants to bring a nice beer to a dinner party instead of a bottle of wine," Bill Frazer, owner of Fat Point Brewing in Punta Gorda, said. "It's going to make things easier for customers. It'll be a small advantage for them."

"We get people who bring in 64-ounce growlers from other states, and I've had to turn them away because we weren't allowed to fill them. I don't have to do that anymore," said Nick Schmidt, owner of Old Soul.

"It's kind of like symbolism that we're on the same sheet of music with the rest of the states. And hopefully it means more beer will be shared."

Connect with this reporter: @ATometich (Twitter)

"64 ounces to Freedom"

Where to celebrate this new world of craft beer

• Fat Point Brewing: Starting 4 p.m. Wednesday the brewery will be selling 150 limited-edition 64-ounce growlers for $20.15 with special discounts for fills that day. (611 Charlotte St., Punta Gorda; 800-380-7405; fatpoint.com)

• Fort Myers Brewing: 64-ounce growlers go on sale Wednesday 3-10 p.m. Thursday 3-11 p.m. the brewery will celebrate with a food-truck rally including Nosh Truck, Organically Twisted, BurgerQue, Poutine Queen and Sizzle Truck, plus live music from Troublemakerz. (12811 Commerce Lakes Dr. suite 27-28, Gateway; 313-6576; facebook.com/FMBrew)

• Momentum Brewhouse: 64-ounce growler release party 5-10 p.m. Wednesday featuring food from Up North Doggs. (9786 Bonita Beach Rd. SE; 949-9945; momentumbrewhouse.com)

• Old Soul Brewing: From 4-9 p.m. Wednesday the brewery will be giving away 48 free 64-ounce growlers when customers pay for the fill. (10970 S. Cleveland Ave. suite 402, Fort Myers; 334-4334; facebook.com/OldSoulBrewing)

• Point Ybel Brewing: From midnight to 1 a.m. Wednesday Point Ybel will sell its 48 limited edition stainless-steel 64-ounce growlers. The brewery will reopen 4 p.m. Wednesday with a special release of its Endless Summer grapefruit pale ale and live music from Wilder Sons. (16120 San Carlos Blvd., south Fort Myers; 603-6535; pointybelbrew.com)

How the new growler law affects you

Brewerslaw.com explains the new legislation

Welcome 64-ounce growlers

The law finally legalizes the 64-ounce growler in Florida. The statute authorizes growlers — containers that are filled at the point of sale — in three sizes: 32 ounce, 64 ounce and 128 ounce.

At the time of sale, growlers must have an unbroken seal or be incapable of being consumed immediately. All growlers must have a label that includes the following information: manufacturer, brand, anticipated alcohol by value (ABV)

Manufacturers can open multiple taprooms

A manufacturer that has multiple licensed brewery locations in the state can have taprooms on up to eight of those brewery locations.

The law also takes the tourism out of the so-called Tourism Taproom Exception. The exception that allows a brewery to have a taproom on its premises no longer includes a requirement that a taproom include "other structures which promote the brewery and the tourist industry of the state," whatever that meant.

Limits on transporting beer

The law imposes a new limit on how much beer can be transferred from one brewery location to another brewery location. Without involving a distributor, the amount of beer that can be transferred from one location to another location is limited to an amount equal to the annual production of the receiving location.

Unlike other licensed vendors, brewery taprooms cannot deliver beer sold in the taproom to a location outside the taproom.

Expanded beer samplings

Previously, only vendors could host beer tastings on their premises. Under the new law, manufacturers, distributors and importers are also allowed to conduct samplings at select permitted locations.

Craft distilleries can sell more bottles

Good news for Cape Coral's Wicked Dolphin: The new law allows craft distilleries to sell more bottles in their gift shops. Previously, craft distilleries could sell no more than two bottles per person per year. Under the new law, craft distilleries can sell to each person each year either two bottles per branded product, or four bottles of a single branded product, whichever is greater.

The law also allows the Florida Department of Transportation to post craft distillery signs on Florida highways.

Source: brewerslaw.com