MONTGOMERY – Following the lead of their colleagues in other states, Alabama microbrewers are fighting for the right to sell beer from their taprooms, AL.com reports. 

The brewers face a stiff challenge, as a 2011 law allows them to operate taprooms though it specifically prohibits them from selling their beer for consumption off-premises.

House Bill 530, sponsored by state Rep. Barry Mask, seeks to change the law, creating a special off-premises license for breweries and their brewpubs that would allow them the right to sell up to 25,000 barrels of beer at retail each year.

The bill would challenge the state’s three-tier distribution system, whereby producers can only sell their beer to a middleman distributor who then sells it to retailers.  

Mask expects resistance from distributors and doubts the bill will be approved during the current legislative session, though he believes there is room for compromise.

“We want to respect the three-tier system, but we also don’t want to thwart entrepreneurship either,” he said.

Dan Roberts, executive director for the Alabama Brewers Guild, said the distributors’ worries are unfounded, as roughly 46 states allow some kind of off-premises sales for breweries while operating under a three-tier system. “There’s only so much beer you can sell in a taproom at a brewery. The real money is in putting your beer out there in the market,” which can only be done through a distributor, he said.