Did you know that in the state of Florida, a brewery cannot bring a keg of their own beer to their own tap room only a few miles away?
Breweries are required to use 3rd party distributors to send beers to stores, restaurants, bars, and even their own tap rooms. But distribution deals are signed for life, and there is nothing a brewery can do to get out of a bad distribution deal, even if the distributor is not interested in shipping their beers any longer.
Right now, Florida’s breweries are currently being hampered by antiquated beer laws left over from prohibition and focused on unfairly supporting distributors over the breweries themselves.
The only thing we can do is to let your legislators in Tallahasse know this is unfairly hurting your local breweries and help them understand without legal reform, Florida will continue to be hostile to these small businesses.
To do this, visit this site to find your representative. Send them a message, or use this one set up by the Florida Brewers Guild on their Freedom For Beer website (While you’re there, it’s a great place to read up on the laws we need to change and donate to the cause as well).
Finally, tell all of your family and friends to do the same.
With enough support, we can make Florida a great place for small business!
Florida Beer Blog 