Bill Aims To Raise Small Brewery Limits

A bill easing beer production restrictions is in its early stages in the North Carolina Legislature. 

If Senate Bill 313 becomes law, craft brewers could potentially fill over four times as many barrels of beer than they can now.

The bill, filed Thursday, would raise the production cap for small breweries from 25,000 barrels to over 100,000 barrels per year. Under current law, if a craft brewery wanted to sell more, they had to partner with a larger distributor.

Forsyth County Republican Sen. Joyce Krawiec is one of the primary sponsors of the bill. She told the Winston-Salem Journal that the current restrictions are “antiquated and rooted in the Prohibition era.”

A similar measure is expected to be introduced in the House later this month, making it a total of three pro-craft brewing laws that have been put forward in this session alone.