Majority of U.S. breweries have onsite sales and they are outpacing category growth
One of the questions we ask through the BIPS survey is about distribution. In 2013, we had almost 1,400 breweries tell us their distribution pattern. Of those, 61% had a significant onsite distribution presence, either as a brewpub or micro with a tap room. Those breweries significantly exceed category growth, growing at a scorching 24% in 2013.
It is a wise model. Of course, smaller breweries may be more likely to have ‘significant’ taproom sales over larger ones and smaller breweries have a smaller base from which to grow. Both of those things could be skewing the numbers.
More >> Brewers Association blog.
Unfortunately you have states like Georgia in which breweries and brewpubs cannot sell beer for patrons to take home. Meanwhile one can go to a winery in Georgia and buy bottles to take home. There was an attempt this year to get the law changed to allow breweries and brewpubs to sell a small amount directly (in growlers and limited to 288 ounces per person per day), but the law got watered down and ended up stalling in committee.
http://www.georgiacraftbrewersguild.org/press-releases/2014/1/22/gcbg-respond-to-the-study-committee-report-2014-on-growler-s.html
In recent years the laws were changed so that a brewpub could sell a limited amount of their beers at other retail establishments (other restaurants/bars and growler shops).
The growler regulations here weren’t done in some legislative committee room, they were based on existing regulations and tweaked by the state Dept. of Revenue and retailers wanting to open growler shops (The argument being that as long as the growlers had their caps sealed with shrink wrap, they weren’t “open containers”.). One thing that helped the growth of growler shops is that liquor stores cannot sell growlers in their stores (but in some cases, the liquor stores opened up growler stores in a separately licensed establishment nearby.