Starting in June, Alabama Breweries Can Sell Beer To-Go

HB176 may not mean anything to most people but to Alabama Breweries and craft beer supporters, it means a new way to do business.

The first sentence of the bill reads,

Under existing law, a licensed manufacturer of beer or a brewpub may not sell its beer directly to a consumer for off-premises consumption.

As of June 1, 2016, the existing law is null and void.

The new law states,

• Breweries manufacturing less than 60,000 barrels per year, will be able to sell at retail up to 288 ounces of its beer per day to a customer for off-premises consumption.
• Breweries and brewpubs will now be able to deliver up to two donated kegs of its beer to a licensed charitable event.
• This bill also deletes the restriction on brewpubs from locating only in historic buildings, historic districts, economically distressed areas, or those wet counties in the state in which beer was brewed for public consumption prior to Prohibition.

As a lover of craft beer myself, this means I can now purchase my favorite beer, directly from the source, hopefully at the peek of its freshness! Tuscaloosa breweries are already celebrating the victory on social media!