Update per GreenvilleOnline: “Stone Bill” floor vote could come as early as Wednesday (5/27).
(Columbia, SC) – Tuesday’s Joint Legislative Conference Committee meeting resulted in significant progress on the “Stone Bill” (H3512) front, according to reports on Twitter.
On Tuesday morning, Greenville.com reported South Carolina Brewers Association General Counsel, Brook Bristow, said “We’re probably looking at a legislative battle on the floor.”
Hours later, Bristow tweeted, “WE HAVE A DEAL. Stone Bill WILL happen.”
The bill was originally going to change state law to allow brewpubs to brew up to 500,000 barrels, an increase over the original 2,000 barrels. It would also have allowed brewpubs to distribute to wholesalers. However, the language of the changes posed a threat to the three-tier system in the eyes of some wholesalers.
As Bristow notes in a series of tweets, Tuesday’s compromise between stakeholders means that changes will be made to the brewery section of the code, not the brewpub section of the code. Brewpubs won’t be able to distribute their beer but may convert their license to a brewery in order to do so.
Essentially, breweries like Stone Brewing Co. will be able to conduct some of the same functions as brewpubs like having a restaurant and on-premise sales along with still being able to produce 500,000 barrels (and beyond) and distribute their beer.
One of the firms involved in the push for Stone to come to South Carolina even reported that a senator present at the meeting announced that Stone to South Carolina was a done deal with this compromise.
Stone, however, downplayed that anything was close to being finalized with respect to its East Coast satellite location search. From a spokesperson:
“We have not made a decision as to where our East Coast brewery will be located. While we applaud the legislation in South Carolina and any like it, this necessary element is but one of many factored into our decision making laid out in our request for proposal.”
The current General Assembly session ends on Thursday, June 5th. There is optimism that the bill will pass both chambers before legislators break away for the summer.