Efforts To Expand Beer Sales, Options Advance
What the Ale: Great beer news: Two beer-related bills get through committee
BY TOM GILBERT Chief Photographer, Tulsa World
Two bills that relate to beer, breweries and liquor stores passed committees Thursday and will head to the floor to hopefully be made law.
Senate Bill 383 by Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, would allow cold beers in excess of 3.2 percent alcohol by weight in liquor stores to be chilled, and SB 424 by Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, would allow a brewer to sell beer in excess of 3.2 percent by weight at the brewery where it is produced.
Both were approved in committee 10-0. That is great news for Oklahoma and for beer lovers. These are just small steps in bringing Oklahoma’s alcohol laws out of the dark ages.
In other states, beer sales at breweries have proven to increase the economic impact. Beer lovers make it a point to travel to breweries and sample what is produced there. It helps to get the full experience when drinking a beer knowing where it was brewed and meeting the people who produced it. It is only fair that a brewer can sell what he produces.