Shipping beer across state lines is not permitted in most of the U.S. but a majority of Americans want to change that.
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Trying to get beer shipped to your home in the U.S. is, well, a buzzkill.
If I want to try a new Californian wine, I can go to the winery website click order and the wine will arrive in my house in Connecticut in a few days. If I want to try a new beer from a California brewery, I’m legally prohibited from getting the beer shipped to my house, and I can only dream about the latest award-winning West Coast IPA or barrel-aged sour.
That’s because while 48 states—including California—allow wine to be shipped across state lines, a mere 12 states and D.C. have similar laws. I’ve long been frustrated by this as an avid beer fan who is constantly hearing about great beers at small breweries across the nation. I’m not the only one.
Eighty-three percent of craft beer drinkers and 64% percent of U.S. adults aged 21+ believe that laws should be updated to allow direct-to-consumer beer shipping in more states than the 12 it is currently permitted in, according to a new survey commissioned by Sovos ShipCompliant and the Brewers Association and conducted by The Harris Poll. Sovos ShipCompliant provides compliance software for alcohol producers and the Brewers Association is a trade group representing the brewing industry.
“Direct-to-consumer beer shipping not only benefits consumers and allows them to try beers from out-of-state and smaller breweries, it could substantially impact brewery revenues,” Alex Koral the regulatory general counsel at Sovos ShipCompliant told me via email. Koral believes this will have a benefit to beer retailers as well. “The vast majority of beer drinkers interested in direct to consumer shipping said they would seek out beers at retail stores from a producer they had tried through direct to consumer shipping.”
Unsurprisingly, the Brewers Association is also supporting law changes to meet this interest in shipped beer. “[This report] shows the great opportunity that stands before breweries (and state coffers) if DtC shipping is allowed for beer as it has been for wine,” wrote Sam DeWitt, state government affairs director at the Brewers Association, in a LinkedIn post.
D.C. allows interstate beer shipping, as does Alaska, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. But those last two states only allow shipping in specific instances. “Rhode Island only permits shipping when the purchase was made when the customer was physically present at the brewery,” Koral told me. He added, that Pennsylvania only lets wholesalers and retailers ship beer, not production license holders, a.k.a. breweries.
Koral said those who want to see the law in their state changed should write their local legislators but also connect with guilds to look at organized efforts in their state. Wine shipping laws are less restrictive in most states because of a campaign started in the late 1990s called Free the Grapes! “One of the reasons that groups like Free the Grapes! was so successful for wine shipping was that it provided a ready script for consumers to use that was designed to speak to legislators,” Koral said. “While one consumer’s voice can be impactful in influencing a lawmaker, collective action and many voices all talking in unison can be very powerful.”
After years of intense growth, craft breweries have been struggling as people have started drinking less overall gravitating to THC seltzers and NA beers, while others have moved from beer to ready-to-drink cocktails or other types of liquor. Because of this, breweries are looking for any revenue streams they can, so loosening shipping laws could help their bottom line. Equally as important, as consumers, we all want more choices and more options, and there’s no reason we should be able to ship other types of alcohol but not beer.
