Most people working for a U.S. packaging brewery are aware of so-called beer “franchise” laws.  Such legislation—enacted in some form in most U.S. states—limits or restricts the abil­ity of a brewer to change distributors.  The author leaves for another article any discussion of the fairness and logic of such enactments.  For now, this article explores some impor­tant basics about these laws and how they impact the brewer-distributor relationship.

This article was originally published in the November/December 2013 issue of The New Brewer.




read more