For a few hours Wednesday evening beer people and politicians gathered in the basement of the State Office Building to hear and be heard on the issue of off-sale growlers.

Jennifer from Zipp's in Mpls, and Tom from Brooklyn Center Municipal Liquor both endorsed the bill. As liquor store owners and operators they would like to be able offer customers some unique beers from a keg. Growler sales are a popular with consumers, and a business model that works in other parts of the country. One good point Tom made was how "green" growlers are vs. the bottles or cans. The waste from a keg worth of a growlers is a few caps vs. a pile of glass bottles. Growlers sales wouldn’t make a significant ecological impact, but it was something new to the conversation.

After Jennifer & Tom answered a few clarifying questions from the Committee, Alvey from Four Firkins beer store voiced his concerns about the bill. Alvey his concerned about the cost needed to properly serve growlers, citing the cost of washing and sanitizing equipment. Also among Alvey's concerns (the one we have heard most from consumers on) is the limited availability of beer that could actually be sold in growlers. The actual number of beers that would be available in growlers is pretty limited.

Once everybody had their say, the bill was laid-over for possible inclusion in the liquor omnibus bill. However, it was made clear that parties involved in the developing the bill will continue to work on the language to try to work out some of the issues and concerns.

Full language of the bill can be found here.