NATCHEZ — The Mississippi Senate is set to review a bill soon that would allow small, craft breweries to sell beer on site.

The bill passed the House with a large margin of support and will likely be referred to committee in the Senate in the next few days.

Local brewer Pat Miller of Natchez Brewing Company said he is glad to see the legislation, which died last year, receiving support. Miller said, however, he is concerned that caveats added to the bill could have negative effects on Mississippi breweries.

Matthew McLaughlin with the Mississippi Brewers Guild agrees that language added to the bill in a    committee substitute while the bill was in the House Ways and Means Committee could negatively affect Mississippi brewers.

Under the bill, breweries could not produce more than 60,000 barrels of light wine or beer but would be able to sell 10 percent or 1,500 barrels of their product, whichever is less, at the brewery. The measure also would allow brewpubs, which make beer that can be consumed only on their premises, to sell beer in growlers (a sealed container that holds up to 128 ounces) for consumption elsewhere. Breweries would be barred from selling between midnight and 7 a.m.

Currently, craft breweries are allowed to conduct tours that offer beer tastings but not sell their products on site.

McLaughlin said the language added to the bill would essentially allow an out-of-state brewery producing more than the 60,000-barrel cap to come into Mississippi, purchase a smaller brewery and sell on-premise, whereas an in-state brewery could not do that.

McLaughlin said the brewers guild has not formulated a conclusive official opinion on that aspect of the bill.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone would have put language in there that would be punitive to Mississippi businesses,” he said.

The language was added, Miller said, as a result of lobbying efforts by Anheuser-Busch, which he said possesses approximately 65 percent of the beer market in Mississippi.

Craft breweries make up less than 1 percent of the market.

The ideal outcome, Miller said, would be for legislation to ensure a large brewery cannot come and stamp out small breweries.

“If Anheuser-Busch came in and bought up one of the small breweries and was able to sell directly on-site, they have enough money to squash (smaller breweries),” he said.

Miller said breweries and distributors across the state have been working together to ensure legislation to allow on-site sales is approved by the Legislature this year.

While the bill died last year, a larger partnership was created to push the legislation. The Mississippi Beer Distributors Association, which did not back last year’s efforts, was one of the key supporters.

“The bill is about small Mississippi businesses,” Miller said. “The breweries and distributors have been working together to make this happen, and there were a lot of compromises made to make sure this happened.”

Miller said it is his hope that while the bill is in the Senate, any language that could negatively impact Mississippi breweries is removed.

The bill in its original form would level the playing field for small in-state breweries, Miller said.

“If a business does well, it allows us to reinvest in our business, hire more people and expand, which is good for Mississippi,” he said.

Not withstanding the potential and possibly unintentional negative impacts to Mississippi brewers, McLaughlin said brewers across the state are pleased to see the bill has made it this far in the legislative process.

“The brewers guild … feels really good about how far we’ve gotten this year,” McLaughlin said.

Sen. Bob Dearing, D-Natchez, said he plans to support the brewery bill in hopes that it will help small breweries compete in their own state.

“I’m in support of it because it helps small businesses in Mississippi,” Dearing said.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.