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MN Beer Activists feed of news, events, education, legislation related to beer, wine, and spirits in Minnesota.

Legislative Events, Newsfeed

Death and Taxes

Taxes

It has been a while since the liquor excise tax has increased in Minnesota, and there is a movement afoot at the Capitol to change that.

The House Tax Omnibus HF 677, will increase the tax on liquor, wine, and beer in Minnesota by substantial amounts, as will the Senate version.  There are a few differences between the bills.  Both have massive increases, but the senate version creates an impact fund to go toward nonprofit entities that run substance abuse programs.

The tax increase is being sold as a mere pennies-per-pint increase, a notion that is entirely false.  In actuality, the tax increase is far more than a few pennies per pint.  The proposed state excise tax has an increase from $4.60 to $27.75 per 31-gallon barrel.  This is a 6-fold increase to one of the few industries showing growth in Minnesota.

Here is the terrible part about the tax increase; it gets passed to you, the consumer.  Brewers aren’t just going to pay the extra cost to the state and be done with it.  To cover the increase, brewers will increase the price that wholesalers pay, then wholesalers will pass that increase to retailers, and retailers will pass it to you.  Say what you want about the 3-tier system, but this is the system we have and it isn’t going away soon.

Follow along for some math fun!

Under the current tax structure:
Local brewery sells keg for $200
Wholesaler sells keg for $260 (30% increase)
Bar/store sells keg for $338 (30% increase)

Under the proposed tax structure:
Local brewery sells keg for $227
Wholesaler sells keg for $295 (same 30% increase)
Bar/store sells keg for $384 (same 30% increase)

See how a $27 tax can quickly become a $46 per Bbls increase? Include the federal excise tax, state sales tax, state alcohol tax, and local taxes, it is obvious that the government likes to dip its beak into your beer and drink heartily.

I think it is a really, really bad thing.

– Jacquie Berglund, Founder and CEO of FINNEGANS Inc.

But, not all governments are created equal. Of the surrounding states, Minnesota is currently in the middle of the pack when it comes to excise tax. South Dakota has a higher state excise tax at $8.50 a Bbls, and Wisconsin only taxes $2.40 a Bbls.  It is worth noting that South Dakota is the only other state in the region that also has a special Alcohol Tax.  The South Dakota special alcohol tax is 2%, and we beat them at 2.5% on gross receipts.

Death

Proponents of the tax increase claim that the extra tax revenue will offset the cost counties pay to run addiction centers and other alcohol-related medical expenses. If the idea is to offset the county costs, why is the tax revenue going into the state general fund? If counties like Hennepin are interested in offsetting the cost alcohol has on society, they should tax it at the county level. In fact, there are already numerous special taxes in downtown Minneapolis as they tax everything from dancing to liquor.

Breweries in Minnesota are doing their best to catch up to the rest on the country.  You will read all kinds news about the craft brewery explosion in Minnesota, but there are over 2,500 breweries in the country and we have less than 50.  We are a good deal behind the rest of the nation when it comes to enjoying local craft beer.  Increasing the cost to operate a brewery will only hinder the growth we’ve begun to see.

The only silver lining in the proposed tax increase is a provision that gives a credit to brewers on the first 50,000 Bbls brewed in a year.  The tax credit is nice, but it leaves breweries like Summit, Schell’s, and Cold Spring to pay a substantial amount of the tax.  The 50,000 ceiling is puzzling.  Nationally, brewers that produce less than 6 Mil Bbls a year are considered small.  A tax credit on 50,000 Bbls a year doesn’t do much to soften the blow of the proposed tax increase.

Unlike local wine and beer producers, there is no protection for local craft distillers in the proposed tax increase. Local distilling is an even smaller industry than brewing and wineries. Small distilleries are only beginning to have a presence here in Minnesota. Is the idea to collect more taxes from distillers, or make sure there are none here to pay the tax?

Minnesota is the home of prohibition and Andrew Volstead, but that doesn’t have to be our legacy. Prohibition is dead. Volstead is dead. This tax increase needs to die, too.

Newsfeed

Our Tweets Have Been Heard – #EnjoyBy 05.17.13 hits #MN

By Tucker Pearce

EnjoyByDatesThose of us in Minnesota love our IPA’s, there’s no doubt about it. It’s also true that some amazing IPA’s and IIPA’s are brewed right here in the state. With so many great IPA’s produced here in Minnesota why is there such a buzz behind Stone Brewing Co’s Enjoy By? First of all it’s FRESH. Many of us beer lovers like cellaring Stouts and other high alcohol beers, it’s cold a vast majority of the year so it makes sense. However when it comes to an IPA we realize that the fresher the beer is the better it is.
 
Freshness
With Stone EnjoyBy IPA they take the freshness very seriously in fact it is printed right on the front of the bottle. In this case it’s 05.17.13 and the idea is that it must be consumed or at least sold by that date. I don’t see this being an issue in fact I worry it will fly off of shelves before myself and others have a chance to buy any due to the “daytime beer hunters”.EnjoyBy3
 
Going back to the freshness; this beer was bottled and kegged at Stone in California on Friday 04.12.13. Unlike some beers that may sit in a warehouse for days Enjoy By was loaded onto pallets and shipped out that very same day. Per a conversation with Hans Lofgren of Original Gravity the beer arrived in Minnesota at their distribution facility on Tuesday 04.16.13 and will make it to stores beginning Wednesday 04.17.13. I’m not sure about the rest of you but I’ll take an IPA brewed six days ago in California.
 
Quantity
In regards to quantity, according to Nate Sellergren (Upper-Midwest Brewery Representative @StoneBrewNate), we will be receiving a good amount of Enjoy By here in Minnesota. There will also be a number of tapings including the kickoff at Republic 7 Corners in Minneapolis on Wednesday 04.17.13. I hope to see many of you there at 5:00pm.
 
Finding Enjoy By
Nate also mentioned that you can go to www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby for a list of stores and bars receiving Enjoy By and I’m guessing other events will also be posted by Original Gravity on their Facebook page and Twitter account.

Keep up the Social Campaign
Last but not least make sure to add your photos of Enjoy By to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and include the hashtags #EnjoyBy #MN. The more we talk about this beer the more likely we are to get it back again.
Tucker Pearce writes for TwinCitiesCraftBeer.com, a site devoted to beer sold or produced in and around the Twin Cities. Tucker can be found on twitter at @Pearceweb
Newsfeed

Surly Brewing Makes Minneapolis Destination Brewery Official

Brooklyn Center based Surly Brewing has been taking all the proper steps to to make Minneapolis the home of their new $20M brewery.

Surly Brewery Site
Photo by Bryce Larson

In recent months the brewery has taken numerous steps to clear the way. They received several federal grants to aid in the environmental remediation, named an architect, and applied for a loan from local government.

With the announcement of the site purchase today it would be tough to turn back now! Minneapolis beer lovers are surely happy to be the future home to another great Minnesota brewery. Even Mayor RT Rybak tweeted his support.

 

Sources: Star Tribune, Twin Cities Business

Newsfeed

All Pints North Summer Brew Fest Tickets Go On-Sale

The Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild All Pints North tickets go on-sale at noon this coming Monday, April 15.

In addition to the regular All Pints North ticket on-sale at noon, there will be an early pre-sale at 10am Monday for ticket 2-packs to All Pints North and Autumn Brew Review. This means you’ll get early access to ABR tickets that generally sell out in seconds, and don’t go on sale until July.

This a nice surprise for those might have missed out on the MNCBG FESTIVAL 6-PACK, or balked at the financial and time commitment when the full pack originally went on sale.

all pints pano

The All Pints North Festival rivals every other guild fest.  The music stage and view alone make this festival worth the price of admission.  It is worth noting that if buy tickets you should book your hotel room at the same time.  Hotel rooms, and even campsites, will fill up quickly.  With all the great places brewing beer in Duluth you should definitely make a weekend out of it.

Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild All Pints North Summer Brew Fest
Saturday, July 13, 2013
3-7 p.m.
Bayfront Festival Park | Duluth, MN

Approx. 2,500 attendees
$30 in Advance (Limit 6) | $40 at the door (if available) | $10 Sober Driver Ticket
APN tickets on sale Monday, April 15 @ Noon
For tickets visit tempotickets.com/apn

APN/ABR ticket packs on sale Monday, April 15 @10am
For tickets visit

Newsfeed

Get Bent

bent brewstilleryBartley Blume and the folks behind Bent Brewstillery are busy finalizing plans to get their operation off the ground. They signed an agreement with Pour Decisions Brewing Company in Roseville, MN to produce Bent beer while they continue to look for a more permanent home in the Arden Hills area.

The agreement with PDBC has Bent beer being contract brewed, but this it is not your typical, hands-off, contract brewing arrangement. While PDBC will brew, Bent Brewing Founder and Brewmaster Bartley Blume, will assist and be an integral part of the brewing process. Bartley will also be responsible for ordering his own ingredients, packaging, etc.

Blume also hopes to have the distilled liquor side of his operation up and running soon. He plans to bring locally made whiskey, bourbon, and gin to the thirsty masses.

“I have a separate agreement with PDBC for me to set up my distillery in their brewery,” says Blume. It will be a stand-alone, self-sufficient distillery complete with 1.5 bbl brewhouse, 3 bbl fermenters, and stills.

Bent Brewstillery will make debut at St Paul Summer Beer Fest on June 15th.

It is worth mentioning that Bent Brewstillery is hoping to gather support for the micro-distillery bills (SF623-625 and HF940-942) that would allow samples and sales at Bent Brewstillery, and every other MN distillery.

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Newsfeed, Review

Reviewbicle: Two Brothers Bare Tree

By Dan Belfry and Jon Buck

www.brewbicle.com

 photo(3)

We decided to celebrate the arrival of spring with a barelywine that has a little spring in its’ step. This beer is clocking in at around 11% ABV and we were excited to try it! Two Brothers makes some great beer and this smaller (12.7oz) corked and caged offering should be no exception. We’ve got another ’10 and ’12; I swear we have other vintages, so look for them next month!

TWO BROTHERS BARE TREE BAERLEYWINE STYLE WEISS BEER

Appearance (’12): There is almost no head, a half a finger at most, which quickly dissipates into a thin white foam floating around the glass. It pours a golden hue with some red undertones, the clarity is high aside from a healthy amount of Sea Monkeys floating around. It should be mentioned that we had a guest taster this week who didn’t think very highly of the Sea Monkeys, we told her that beer was a sort of dude yogurt, with those active cultures and what not. It’s science.

Appearance (’10): Holy Bubbling Barleywine Batman! This guy’s got some carb to it, and it’s not going anywhere. A thick foamy head forms upon pouring and the foamy pudding lingers and loses little body as we review. The clarity on this one isn’t as high, has a slight haze and larger Sea Monkeys floating around. The color is almost the same as its’ younger sibling.

photo(2)

Aroma (’12): Smokey and meaty are forefront here, which caught us a little by surprise. It was described aptly as beef jerky by our guest taster, and there is also a floral bouquet with a sharp tang to it. We are attributing these to both the wheat and yeast in this brew. A slight alcohol presence bites at the end, but nothing overpowering.

Aroma (’10): It appears that carbonation isn’t going to be the only drastic difference between these two. The nose here is dominated by fruit and flowers, dry and sweet like a cider or champagne. Green apple tartness stands out as the nose evolves when the beer warmed up. It smells great and we can hardly wait to try this guy.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’12): Not a ton of complexity to this tasting. It starts off with strong wheat presence, with a floral tang and some sharp crispness and earthy undertones. It then moves to some sweet notes with a hints of honey and caramel, which gives no hint of an 11% beer, as the alcohol is all but undetectable here. Finishes somewhat dry with some lingering fruit notes. The lack of carbonation lets the sweet and fruit linger which personally I found to be the best part, so I’m okay with that. Barleywine style Weiss beer/Wheatwine isn’t something we’re very versed in, so not sure what the level of carbonation is supposed to be, but this seems a little low.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’10): This one, while also leaning toward simplicity, leads us down an entirely different path. It starts with an assertive sweetness, which is eased out by a green apple tartness, and leads nicely to a path of dry sweetness. While this is reminiscent of a green apple tart dryness, this is decidedly sweeter, and honey marches us to the end of this flavor profile. The amount of carbonation evident in the lingering head isn’t very present in the body. The bubbles were quite fine in the head and had little effect on the tongue and was almost like a cask beer in terms of carbonation. By contrast this was nice, as it let the flavors again linger and move slowly away.

Overall Comparison (’12 and ‘10): These beers landed quite a distance from one another on the flavor spectrum and in terms of carbonation. Oddly, the more recent vintage was the less carbonated of the two. We’re not sure if the vast differences are explained by an off batch from either year, or if this really highlights the amount of change that can happen for this beer over the course of two years. One thing we can say with certainty is that we’ll continue aging this; if the ’10 vintage is any indication, this one is a prime candidate for aging. The ’10 really blossomed in two years, as fruits and honey were abundant and delicious. Both were highly drinkable, don’t get me wrong, but the ’10 was such a gem I would recommend that you hang on to whatever year you have of these. Both are around 11% and I couldn’t have told you they were much above 6%. Kudos to Two Brothers on this one.

Cheers!    

Newsfeed

The Minnesotan Who Gave Us Prohibition

Andrew Volstead
Andrew Volstead

All around terrible guy

In these days of massive budget deficits it would sound pretty strange if a politician authored a bill that would cost the Federal government $150,000,000 in beer excise revenue and tens of thousands of jobs. That number is especially shocking when you consider that the average price of a six pack was 40 cents. These severe consequences would not deter one congressman from Minnesota’s 7 th district and that man’s name was Andrew Volstead. Volstead is best remembered for the bill bearing his name that prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages. Known as the Volstead Act; it began some of the darkest thirteen years in American history known as Prohibition. The problem is that while this act bears his name; Volstead himself was likely little more than a figurehead. So what do we really know about Andrew Volstead?

Andrew Volstead was born to first generation Norwegian immigrants on October 31 st 1860 near Kenyon, Minnesota. Educated as lawyer in Decorah, Iowa, Volstead and his family moved to Granite Falls in 1886 where he served as city attorney and later mayor until 1902. In 1902 he was elected to congress in Minnesota’s 7th district as member of the Republican Party. While serving in public office Volstead became increasing involved in the civil rights movement and was one of few politicians willing to argue for legislation banning lynching. During the Progressive Era civil rights would become increasingly entangled with the temperance movement. The temperance movement was backed by very vocal groups, though in the minority, the Woman’s Christian Temperance League and the Anti-Saloon League.

The Anti-Saloon League, headed by Wayne Wheeler, used bullying tactics to apply pressure on politicians to support prohibitionist measures. Aided by World War I Wheeler began a campaign to align the big brewers with the German enemy since most were of German decent; Schlitz, Pabst, Busch, and Miller. In 1919 Wheeler saw his moment and wrote a piece of legislation authorizing national Prohibition. Though Volstead never admitted it, he was likely not the main author of Prohibition. As the chair of the judiciary committee it fell to him to sponsor the bill before congress. This action would cost him his seat in Congress in 1922 as it was largely unpopular with a majority of Americans who considered it violation of their constitutional rights.

Prohibition was repealed 80 years ago this Sunday and signed into law by President Roosevelt. At 12:31 AM on April 8th, 1933 the White House received cases of beer from many of the countries remaining breweries. Though Prohibition has been over for 80 years the country is still feeling the effects of the poorly named Nobel Experiment. So while Andrew Volstead may receive more of the blame than he is due, Minnesotans can still thank him for 3.2 beer, dry Sundays, and restrictive brewing laws. This Sunday we should all raise a glass of beer, well at least those of us who planned ahead, and have a drink to celebrate the end of the Volstead Act.

Newsfeed

The Heads and Hearts Behind Panther Distillery

Panther Distillery - Still
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.”
― Mark Twain

Although we call ourselves Beer Activists, there are emerging issues in liquor law thanks to Panther Distillery. Panther is Minnesota’s first legal whiskey distillery since National Prohibition, and is located way up north in Osakis, a small town not far from Alexandria. Adrian Panther opened the distillery in June 2012 with a goal of making fine Minnesotan whiskey from fine Minnesotan ingredients. Now, less than a year later, Panther has bottles in over 400 stores and bars extending from North Dakota all the way to the Twin Cities.

I stopped by the distillery last Friday on my way north once I realized that it is only a few miles off of the Osakis exit from I-94. The owner wasn’t in the shop, but his son was happy to give a tour. The distilling process doesn’t differ hugely from what you see with beer: Yeast and grain decompose to create mash. In distillation, however, that end product is condensed in a still to raise the alcohol content higher than beer. The still can be set up differently to change how the whiskey turns out, and additional flavors can be added to the alcohol being made. (Watch for Panther’s apple-infused whiskey called Spiked Apple Spirits coming out in a couple of months— yum!)

At that point, the product is either filtered quickly through a barrel to become Panther’s clear White Whiskey, or is sent into barrels for aging. Panther uses virgin white oak barrels to age its bourbon (which are available for purchase at the distillery!) for two years. The White Whiskey is what is available now, and the first batches of aged whiskey and bourbon will be available next spring.

Panther Distillery - Mash
“I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.”
― Ava Gardner

As I walked through Panther’s set up with the owner’s son, we discussed potential changes to Minnesota law that might impact the way Panther does business. Alongside lawmakers, Panther wants to change Minnesota’s licensing law to allow the distillery to do the same things that taprooms in breweries are able to do. The owner wants to give samples to tourists, sell bottles of whiskey in his establishment, and have a hospitality room where tourists can purchase beverages made with his product. It seems fairly simple, but has met the same opposition that the Surly taproom bill did when it was proposed.

Thousands of people have toured Panther, and not one has been able to sample Panther’s product in shop? That is pretty disappointing. After having been to the distillery and taken the tour, I genuinely hope the law changes so Panther can be an even better tourist destination. The tour I went on was really interesting, and everyone who worked there was friendly, outgoing, and clearly in love with what they do. I can only imagine how much more fun it would be to sit down and have a drink there, with the people who make the whiskey.

Panther Distillery
“Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
― Abraham Lincoln

The good news is that since it opened, Panther has been able to expand by adding two more stills to the operation, which can only be a good thing. Next time you’re heading up north, I highly recommend a trip to Panther—the distillery is open for tours from 10am-4pm during the week, and noon to 4pm on Saturdays.

Panther Distillery
300 East Pike Street
Osakis, MN 56360
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