Against Crony Capitalism – by Nick Sorrentino
Beer, many of us love it. I definitely count myself a fan. A nice hefewiesen on a hot day while grilling burgers is one of the great gifts of life. But stouts, ales, lagers, pilsners, porters, and bocks all have their place. Variety is the spice of life, and beer. And that is why craft brewers have sprouted up like barley shoots all over our great nation over the last decade. It is a golden age for beer drinkers. Never before have beer consumers had so much quality and so much variety.
But the beer distributors are wary. Long a political powerhouse they are not keen on these little breweries sprouting up and selling their product directly to customers. Beer distribution is THEIR business and they want a cut. As such, in Florida the lobbyists have come out in force to get the government to force brewers to first sell their beer to the distributors and then to buy back the beer at a 30-40% markup. The beer doesn’t leave the brewery except with the customer, but the distributors want a law which forces these budding beer businesses to pay up. For nothing.
Sounds like the mafia, except it’s the government.
(From Raw Story)
The law would force craft brewers to sell their bottled and canned beer directly to a distributor. If they want to sell it in their own tap rooms, they would then have to buy it back at what is typically a 30-40 percent mark-up without the bottles or cans ever leaving the brewery, according to Joshua Aubuchon, a lawyer and lobbyist for the Florida Brewers Guild.
The rule would not apply to draft beer.
“That to me looks like racketeering,”
Just go back to bootlegging the stuff and ignore this ridiculous government of cheap whores.
Crony capitalism at work here,or,call it what it really is,welfare.
“Sounds like the mafia, except it’s the government.”
Sounds like the mafia, it Is the mafia……….
This is how it already works in Michigan. A microbrew restaurant in one part of the state, makes it’s beer, ships it over 2 hours to a State approved distributor and then has to buy it back and drive it back the 2 hour drive.
I think in this modern, information age, the need for the government to regulate tobacco, alcohol and firearms has past. With instant access to info we can find out for ourselves who produces a trustworthy product.
They still have yet to produce anything to equal my brother’s home-brewed Scottish ale.
OOOH poor wittle crappy beer crapwieser and crap-iller and crap-coors can’t convince people to buy their terrible goat piss beers now that St. Arnolds, Rahr Bros., Avery and other craft breweries are making great and nutritious beers and now they’re losing money….oh cry me a freakin’ river!
Hand crafted beers–one of the best things still made in the good ol’ US of A!