The NC Craft Brewers PAC is a general purpose Political Action Committee (PAC) founded by North Carolina Craft Brewers. Its purpose is to protect the rights of North Carolina breweries and to champion common sense legislative reforms.
NC Craft Beer Legislative Progress
2019
SB290: Passage of ABC Omnibus bill providing revisions to ABC laws, to include the following provisions relevant to NC Beer:
- Ability to private label beer products
- Clarification of contract brewing law
- Ability to conduct tastings & sell beer at non-365 day farmers markets
- Allows sales at sports & entertainment venues
- Allows dogs in brewery taprooms that do not prepare food on-site
- Sale of two beers to a single patron at a time
- Authorizes the transfer of beer between permittee’s retail locations up to 4 times per year
- Allows sales and consumption of alcoholic beverages at bingo games
- Retained retail delivery rights for breweries without an additional permitting requirement.
2018
HB500: Revisions to ABC laws, allowing a commercial permittee to sample alcoholic beverages for purposes of sensory analysis, quality control, or education on the permitee’s:
- licensed commercial premises
- licensed retail premises, and
- the premises of a special event where the commercial permittee is participating.
2017
SB155: “Brunch Bill”: Affecting several aspects of the alcohol laws as described below.
- Removing the requirement of food sales for the sale of on-premise unfortified wine.
- Amends the definition of a growler so that crowlers may be filled in the same manner by retailers for consumers on-demand.
- Authorizes local governments to allow sales of alcohol as early as 10am on Sundays.
- Allows breweries to store their beer off of the permitted brewery premises, if the off-site storage location has been approved by the TTB, and if the brewery notifies the ABC of the off-site storage location.
- Farm brewery provision allows brewery tasting rooms in dry counties to obtain permits for the sale of beer for on- or off-premises consumption, if local government approval is obtained, and only if the brewery is also a farm that produces agricultural products for use in the brewery.
- Breweries operating an additional retail location are required to sell a reasonable selection of competitive beers, but only if that retail location is operating under a different trade name than the brewery.
- Allows a brewery to give beer tastings to brewery tour participants.
- Confirms that a brewery employee may taste alcohol on the permitted commercial premises for sensory analysis, quality control, or educational purposes.
2015
HB909: Revisions to ABC laws allowing:
- Alternating proprietorships for breweries.
- Contract brewing.
2014
SB734: Article 11 of Chapter 18B of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section creating the ability for community colleges and colleges to obtain ABC authorization to offer brewing, distillation, and fermentation courses that involve the manufacturing of beer and the sale of that beer.
2013
HB829: Revision to ABC laws to allow the retail sale of malt beverages in “growlers”, a cleaned, sanitized, resealable container that is filled or refilled and sealed for consumption off the permitted premises. “Growler” must identify the permittee and the date the container was filled or refilled.
2012
SB745: Brought significant changes to NC beer franchise law, including a special provision for small breweries (defined as those breweries selling fewer than 25,000 barrels annually) to terminate a wholesaler in the absence of “good cause” (as defined by the statute), provided the brewery pays the wholesaler fair market value for the brand’s distribution rights.
2011
HB796: Revisions to ABC laws allowing:
- the holder of a brewery permit to sell at retail the brewery’s malt beverages, or malt beverages manufactured by the permittee in a different state, at the brewery.
- all breweries to operate an on-site taproom. Prior to this legislation, only breweries that sold fewer than 25,000 barrels annually could operate an on-site taproom.
2009
HB1595: Created the Malt Beverage Special Event permit, which allows breweries, importers, and nonresident beer vendors to give free tastings or sell by the glass at certain special events.