New ANBL Licensing Rules - Hurting Small Startup Breweries!

[mr x]

Heard on the radio Railcar Brewing up in NB is having major trouble with the liquor Corp. May kill the operation if they don't relax the laws. Something about having to have thousands of liters available though the agency before they can sell onsite.

[canuck]

Heard on the radio Railyard(?) up in NB is having major trouble with the liquor Corp. May kill the operation if they don't relax the laws. Something about having to have thousands of liters available though the agency before they can sell onsite.

Yep, Mitch received a letter last week from the fuckers at ANBL indicating that he needs to sell 10,000 litres of beer through them first before he can sell beer on premise. Total bullshit, especially considering that this new law was totally out of the blue and non of the craft breweries were notified. The Provincial gov't simply shouldn't be involved in the beer business whatsoever!!

[mr x]

Does it effect you?

[canuck]

Does it effect you?

No, not me personally as I don't sell on premise. But it certainly will affect any new small start up breweries wanting to sell product on premise though. It's just fucking ridiculous.

[mr x]

So this law was just passed?

[canuck]

So this law was just passed?

Yep, Mitch was just recently notified about it. And not a single craft brewery here in NB was notified that this was even in the works.

[mr x]

Ex Diageo guy looking after the big guys maybe...

[canuck]

Possibly, but who the fuck knows why they implement the shit that they do. As you can probably tell, I'm rather bitter when it comes to anything ANBL related.

[dean2k]

This is standard NB policy across all govt agencies: stifle any and all small and emerging business with unnecessary bureaucracy, and then complain about lack of entrepreneurship and innovation in the province. ( Also, see food trucks for Exhibit B)

[mr x]

The food truck in rothesay bit on cbc radio this week was hilarious.

But remember who they hired to run anbl, and where he came from. Does not surprise me at all.

Funny how anbl wants to autocorrect to anal lolol

[chalmers]

http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfre ... y-changes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.change.org/petitions/new-bru ... n-was-made" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We'll be posting about it, and the ANBL response, this morning on the blog.

[canuck]

The food truck in rothesay bit on cbc radio this week was hilarious.

But remember who they hired to run anbl, and where he came from. Does not surprise me at all.

Funny how anbl wants to autocorrect to anal lolol

Yeah, the comments from the mayor of Rothesay regarding the food truck were brutal. And to think this jackass was my high school Principal!

It really seems that people in power do every fucking thing they can to discourage small businesses.

[mr x]

The petition should be sent out as a spam. If someone wants to do that today, great. If not I'll try to do it tomorrow on a computer.

[McGruff]

Just listened to the interview. Wow, all that money invested only to be railroaded by the stupid province. Bastards!

[GAM]

The petition should be sent out as a spam. If someone wants to do that today, great. If not I'll try to do it tomorrow on a computer.

I just tried Rob. It didn't go as too many recipiants.

Sandy

[dean2k]

I'm trying to work the logic out in my head, but admittedly I don't know enough about listings, licenses, taxes, etc. I'm sure it's a revenue issue somewhere along the line. We are the nickle and dime, death by a thousand cuts Province. I just can't imagine someone like an independent farmer who wants to sell eggs at a farmers market being told that they need to sell 10,000 cartons of eggs at Superstore first. Sad to think that Sask's Premier Brad Wall is pushing for reduced barriers to inter-provincial beer sales, yet we're restricting sales within our own jurisdiction.

[mr x]

Sounds like an ex corporate liquor exec. protecting his old comrades.

[chalmers]

http://atlanticcanadabeerblog.wordpress ... -20140718/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

• Railcar Brewing has been planning to set up shop in Florenceville-Bristol, NB. After a change in plans in which their original planned location in the Shogomoc Historical Railway Site was scrapped, they have now opened their retail shop and brewery just a few minutes down Main Street. However, they are facing a brand new major hurdle from the ANBL. They've just received notice that a late-June board meeting has decided that before a Brewery Agency Store licensee may sell any beer at their location for off-premises consumption (by means of bottles or growlers), they must first sell 10,000 litres of product through the ANBL network within 12 months (whether it be kegs delivered to bars, or bottles sold at ANBL stores). For a very small 1 BBL (Beer Barrel, 117 litres) brewery like Railcar, this would mean brewing, fermenting, conditioning, kegging and/or bottling, selling, and delivering to the ANBL or to restaurants and bars (possibly not in their home region) two full batches per week, assuming no spillage or spoilage. For a very small brewery whose business plan concentrated on sales direct from the brewery (including investing several thousand dollars in growlers that may become unusable), this is disastrous, and may handcuff them from opening. Railcar owner Mitch Biggar has been on CBC Radio and TV spreading word of how this will affect his small business, but keep in mind this will affect all future NB breweries as well. Mitch will be meeting with the ANBL next week, and we hope that he will still be able to open the week of Aug 10, which coincides with the Florenceville Festival of Flavour.

• When we heard of this change, we contacted ANBL president Brian Harriman for comment. He was kind enough to respond, and he assured us, "We are going to have discussions with stakeholders who were in process of starting breweries prior to development of this new strategy. We want to do all we can to support industry development to see the micro brewery industry prosper in NB". While this is encouraging to hear, we feel the consultations with stakeholders should have taken place before these new rules were implemented. Mr Harriman goes on, "We believe that our new policy will serve to strengthen our business. We also feel that the 100 HL requirement is a manageable number for new brewers." While we understand that the ANBL's goals are to generate income and control the sale of alcohol in the province, we believe that these requirements are not manageable for new brewers who may be transitioning into this industry as a part-time endeavour, or are trying to generate the least amount of debt possible. Dozens of kegs for licensees and hundreds of bottles for the ANBL are not cheap!

• So, what can you do about this? We encourage you to read and sign an online petition created by friends and neighbours (and potential suppliers) of Railcar, Kathryn and Nick Southan of Southan Farms in Wicklow. While this petition is specific to Railcar's issue (and others that may be in the middle of licensing), we feel that signing it shows your support for the idea that before any rules are implemented, discussions with breweries, big and small, should be taking place. We suggest that either different production tiers are implemented in the licensing strategies, or allowances for breweries to sell primarily (or exclusively) for off-site consumption at their brewery locations. To assist with the extra financing he will need to comply with these restrictions, he has just launched a crowd-funding plumfund page.

[gm-]

This really sucks, stupid bureaucrats!

Could he get around it by establishing a "bar" in his brewhouse where he would sell beer from kegs and growlers purchased through ANBL?

[canuck]

This really sucks, stupid bureaucrats!

Could he get around it by establishing a "bar" in his brewhouse where he would sell beer from kegs and growlers purchased through ANBL?

ANBL doesn't deal with the purchase of growlers, so unless ANBL reverses this ridiculous new law, unfortunately Mitch will be shit out of luck selling beer in growlers.

[jeffsmith]

"We believe that our new policy will serve to strengthen our business..."

And there's the key quote right there.

[canuck]

I personally love this quote from Harriman.

We also feel that the 100 HL requirement is a manageable number for new brewers.

This guy doesn't have two fucking clues if he thinks that is a manageable number for a Nano.

[mikeorr]

I'm curious as to what "problem" they think they're solving with this new regulation? Correct me if I'm wrong, but ANBL still gets their cut from the growler/direct-retail sales so it's not like they need this for revenue reasons.

It's just needless red-tape, and creates a (needlessly) higher barrier for growth in the small/entry-level craft beer scene.

[dean2k]

New Brunswick: Closed for Business!

[LeafMan66_67]

Hard to believe that NS liquor laws are more progressive than another province!