Golden Triangle residents won’t be walking into the region’s single brewery, Mayhew Junction Brewing Company, and buying a beer anytime soon.
Two bills that would have allowed Mississippi craft breweries to sell their product on-site died in Legislative committees Tuesday.
Current state law does not allow breweries to sell their beer at the site where it is created. Mississippi is the only state that currently forbids breweries from doing so, according to Matthew McLaughlin, an attorney with the Mississippi Brewers Guild.
One of the bills died in the Senate on Tuesday.
Rep. Jeff Smith, R-Columbus, chairman of the House Ways & Means committee, told The Dispatch in a text Wednesday that he killed the other bill in not letting it come up for a vote Tuesday. Smith declined to elaborate.
Jeff Amy, an Associated Press reporter present when the bill was killed, said Smith made a speech in committee letting the room know he had promised people he would not move the bill.
Smith received $1,000 in campaign contributions from Anheuser Busch; $500 from the Distilled Spirits Council; $800 from the Mississippi Malt Beverage Association PAC (whose website says it promotes wholesalers and the beer industry); and $1,000 from Kroger — which sells beer in its stores — in 2015, according to the Mississippi Secretary of State office.
McLaughlin, who wrote both HB-846 and SB-2744, declined to speculate why the bills died.
He said that despite the legislation’s failure, the Mississippi Brewers Guild is encouraged.
McLaughlin said the group received a “tremendous” amount of support, and feels good about advancing its message as far as it did: It was the first time such legislation led by beer manufacturers has advanced as much.
“It’s incumbent on us to continue to work to educate on the restrictive nature of the laws that exist in Mississippi,” McLaughlin said.
In 2012 and 2014, a consumer advocacy group Raise Your Pints and the group Mississippians for Economic and Beverage Advancement led the way.
The state continues to evolve on the matter of alcohol consumption: In 2012, the state had only one craft brewery. That same year Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law moving the limit of alcohol content of professional brewing and sale of beer to move from 5 percent by weight to 8 percent.
McLaughlin said Mississippi currently has eight brick-and-mortar breweries, along with four or five that are in planning stages.
Virginia, by comparison, has 130. Alabama hosts twice as many as Mississippi, according to McLaughlin.
“This is a fairly dated system, and I think people are going to realize the business sector needs some help,” he said. “I think that if we can continue to tell a compelling story, we can continue to develop the partnerships (needed to succeed).”
Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, a member of the guild and co-owner of Mayhew Junction Brewing Company, said the bills’ failures were “disappointing” for the business, which had hoped to expand its services and hire more staff.
“We’d like to sell pints and growlers from our facility,” she said. “It’s not going to change our business plans…but I think it would have helped us to expand, hire more people and would be good for tourism.”
Mohammadi-Aragh said she frequents visits breweries around the country, and hopes to create some of the same spirit she has seen at them in Mississippi, eventually.
“I think Mississippi has a lot of room to grow…It’s really kind of a different atmosphere (in other states)…We’re trying to bring some of that here,” she said.
Already, the increased attention on the subject has brought potential investors to the area, McLaughlin said. However, without support from state legislators he said state brewmasters will be unable to compete with the global market for craft beers, which is increasing at dramatic rates.
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
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