Peter Schorsch
State Sen. Rob Bradley surveyed a nearly packed committee room and advised stakeholders if their strategy is to “sit in the weeds” and try to amend a bill allowing 64-ounce containers of beer after it leaves his Regulated Industries Committee, they may be disappointed.
“Bottom line is this is the year we are going to free the growler,” said Bradley. “Bring your concerns now. Don’t sit in the weeds and wait until it leaves this committee because that is not a practice the Senate will take kindly.”
State Sen. Jack Latvala is sponsoring SB 186 to permit the 64-ounce growler. Bradley Wednesday held a workshop on alcohol regulations in preparation for taking up the bill.
Florida is the only state to continue to outlaw the growler size considered the industry standard. It permits quart size of beer and gallon-size containers but has steadfastly refused to repeal the ban on a 64-ounce growlers – an English term for malt-beverage containers that is said to stem from a sound made by a full container.
A key decision the committee will make is whether completely to repeal size limitations on malt beverage containers. That is, to allow 64 ounces or permit a variety of sizes such as 28-ounce or 40-ounce or whatever size a brewery wants to market.
“There’s an individual use perception,” Susan Pittman, the executive director of Drug Free Duval, explained to the committee.
Pitman said increased access leads to increased use and an increase in retail is a gateway to increased abuse. But the group will accept “begrudgingly” the 64-ounce growler but remains opposed to deregulation of container sizes.
“People consider 32 ounces an individual serving (and) 128 ounces is clearly a bulk size. We have come to believe that 64-ounce can also be educated to our consumers that it is a bulk sale or a multiple-use sale. It is not the kind of thing that you sit down and drink your 64 ounces in one sitting,” said Pitman.
Nathan Stonecipher of St. Petersburg’s Green Bench Brewing Company explained that growlers are part of the craft brewing community experience. They enable friends and kindred spirits to share a “distinctly unique” malt beverage at their leisure.
“We feel the market itself will dictate what an appropriate bottle size is. If a distributor does not want to carry a bottle size it wouldn’t make sense for a brewery to put a beer in that bottle and then not sell it to the marketplace as a whole,” said Stonecipher.
Bradley said the committee will also consider who should be allowed to sell growlers, whether to allow growlers to be filled by so-called “guest taps,” craft brewers to hold taste-testing events and whether a brewer can transfer beer from one brewery to another for on-location sales.
On the question of complete repeal of container-size restrictions for beer, the chairman remains uncommitted.
“I’m a free-market-deregulation kind of guy but there are some compelling reasons offered about it being industry standard and that sort of thing and we will take that into consideration.
Bradley expects a robust discussion at the committee’s next meeting.
