Legislature provides boost to breweries
April 18, 2023
by Charles Bockway for WV Beer Roads.
Now that we’ve had time to review the alcohol-related legislation adopted by the West Virginia Legislature earlier this year, it appears to have been a pretty good year for local beer.
The key piece of legislation passed in 2023 was Senate Bill 534. It is a sort of omnibus bill pieced together from numerous quarters and includes significant provisions covering brewers, alcohol retailers, municipalities, and distillers.
Listen to the podcast
For our annual West Virginia Beer Roads legislative wrap-up show, Charleston-based attorney, Chuck Johnson, joins in as our resident expert on SB 534. Johnson, who is with the Frost Brown Todd law firm, feels the legislation is significant in several areas. The bill goes into effect on June 9, 2023.
Listen in as Erin McCoy and I quiz Chuck to bring out the pertinent, essential info contained in SB 534 — info that should be of interest to you as a craft beer fan.
Thanks to all who helped
A shout-out is due to to all our West Virginia brewers, beer retailers, and local economic development officials who participated in pushing the good provisions and language into SB 534. We’ve heard positive things about the involvement of brewer J.W. Grossclose and folks at Big Draft Brewing in White Sulphur Springs, brewer Roger Johnson of Screech Owl Brewing in Cuzzart, craft beer bar proprietor Jeff McKay (as usual) in Huntington, and folks at the Huntington Area Development Council. I’m sure we missed a few others.
Another smile and shout-out is due for members of the West Virginia Legislature, who voted for SB 534; to Governor Jim Justice, who signed it into law; and to the WV Alcohol Beverage Control Administration, which has the important job of writing the regs and administering these new expanded brewery provisions. It’s great to see West Virginia continuing to make strides in becoming a more craft-beverage-friendly state. Let’s keep up the momentum.
Frost Brown Todd firm’s written summary of SB 534
West Virginia Legislature link
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2 comments on “Legislature provides boost to breweries”
Chadwick Sacks
April 20, 2023 at 8:27 amIs it possible to get more information regarding the laws and changes to laws of homebrewers and brew clubs in the state of wv?
Also I have an Instagram
@seventhcirclemead
Charles Bockway
April 26, 2023 at 9:11 amTo my knowledge, West Virginia has never had legislation specifically defining homebrewing or homebrew clubs. The state seems to be comfortable letting homebrewers ride under the limits and definitions established in federal law. This seems to have worked very well for the past 45 years since homebrewing was clearly made legal under federal law. My guess is that homebrewers much prefer this to the alternative of having the state law/regs trying to define and limit what homebrewers can and cannot do. WV has several active homebrew clubs (which you can find contact info for several of them at https://brilliantstream.com/homebrewing/). National Big Brew Day is coming up May 6 and some homebrew clubs hold brewing events to promote their craft. Seems like I do remember some WV legislation that talks about homebrewers who want to do/participate in public beer festivals. You might contact the WVABCA to get more info on what that’s about, if you’re particularly interested.