2020 legislative wrap up from the Washington Brewers Guild

Following up on our previous posts regarding legislative actions in Washington this year that impacted the beer and brewing industry. See previous posts.

Here is the wrap up from the Washington Brewers Guild, which represents the interests of the Washington brewing industry in such matters:

There were three bills and two passed. The one that didn’t pass was HB 2319, which would have eliminated keg registrations for all kegs retailers. We were able to salvage some of that bill by adding an amendment to HB2412 (additional retail outlets and dogs). The amendment eliminated keg registrations for breweries. We couldn’t do it for all retailers, because the title of the bill wasn’t broad enough (subject matter in the bill has to fit under the title).

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As passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor, HB 2412:

• Eliminates keg registrations for breweries
• Increases additional retail licenses available for breweries from two to four
• Direct the Dept of Health to adopt rules allowing for dogs on brewery premises

SB 5006 also passed the Legislature and was signed into law. SB 5006:

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• Creates a $200 annual endorsement for breweries to sell WA wine by the glass for on-premise consumption
• Creates a $200 annual endorsement for wineries to sell WA beer for on-premise consumption
  Holding the endorsement doesn’t impact a breweries ability to have minors on premise or require the addition of the kitchen (prior to the bill’s passage, one of those two things would need to occur in order to sell wine)

The new laws will go into effect 90 days from the Governor’s signature (Around June 10th for both). However, we requested early implementation on the keg rules, because filling out those forms is a pinch point for social distancing. The LCB agreed and will not enforce the use of the forms for breweries, effective immediately (so keg registrations are no more for breweries, as of yesterday).

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