Bill would promote Indiana-brewed beer; other provisions would call for Sunday sales

By Alec Gray
The Statehouse File

INDIANAPOLIS – Hoosiers could buy cold Indiana-brewed beer in grocery, convenience and drug stores under legislation that has been proposed in the Indiana House and Senate.

But the fate of the bills – or whether they’ll even be debated in a hearing – is uncertain.

A House committee chairman has said he hasn’t scheduled any alcohol-related bills for hearings and a Senate chairman said he hasn’t decided whether he will move forward on any either.

The bills are the latest attempts to move cold beer into groceries and other retailers. Under current law, only liquor stores can sell cold beer.

Retailers have tried unsuccessfully to change that law. This year, supporters are pushing a new idea – giving grocery, drug and convenience stores the ability to sell cold beer if it’s made by Indiana brewer. They’re calling it economic development.

“I fully support anything that would help Indiana breweries,” said Matt Robinson, a writer HoosierBeerGeek.com.

But the proposal has plenty of detractors, including some who believe the proposal – combined with another to allow Sunday alcohol sales – could put liquor stores out of business.

“My theory is that you’ll have to work 7 days a week to make the same amount of money,” said Judy Green, a liquor store owner in Trafalgar and Morgantown. “They’re defiantly not looking out for us small town mom and pop stores. They’re trying to put us out of business.”

The author of the Senate bill – Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville – said the Indiana-brewed beer provisions would not put liquor stores out of business. Indiana craft beer is only 2 percent of the market, he said.

But Marc Carmichael, the president of the Indiana Beverage Alliance, said that the provisions regarding Indiana beer are inappropriate anyway.

“Well the Indiana angle is not legal,” Carmichael said. “As a state you can’t have a law that benefits your brewers and your wineries at the expense of out of state brewers and wineries. The whole idea that we might give preferential treatment on Sunday to Indiana beers is not legal. If that were to pass it would have to include all beers. It could not just be limited to Indiana beers.”

That would be fine with Grant Monahan, the president of the Indiana Retail Council and the Alliance for Responsible Alcohol Retailers. He said the groups would like to see the bill remove the word Indiana and just say craft beer, which are generally brewed by smaller, independent breweries.

“I will admit that the bill needs some further refinement, but I don’t know if we need to take the craft beer out,” he said.

Rep. Cindy Noe, R-Indianapolis, is the author of House Bill 1131, which includes not only the Indiana-brewed beer provisions but also language to allow for carryout sales of alcohol on Sundays. Noe said it makes no sense that current law permits restaurants to sell alcohol on Sundays but not retailers.

“We now do have Sunday sales,” Noe said. “You can go to restaurant, you can go to an establishment that sells alcoholic beverage, you can go to a Colts game at the Lucas Oil Stadium and purchase your alcoholic beverage and then drive home. But you cannot drive to a retail establishment, buy your alcoholic beverage and then drive home and consume it.”

“Prohibitions on days of the week make no sense,” said Roger Baylor of the New Albanian Brewing Company in New Albany.

But opponents say the proposals would upset a balanced alcohol system that has kept all retailers healthy.

“Legislators have to realize that Indiana family businesses have made decisions to purchase liquor stores and purchase prices have been set,” he said. “Those decisions were made and those prices were set on the fact that you would have cold beer for sale and your grocer competitor would not. We can change that, we could give the groceries and convenience stores cold beer, but legislators need to understand if you do that than you have ruined the value of the liquor stores. Those families who own liquor stores are going to watch the value of that business plummet.”

Carmichael said that alcohol issues have been a turf war in Indiana for 77 years. But Monahan said it’s time for change.

“It is our hope that both of these bills passed this session. This is the second time we’ve tried to do this and we are going to make a strong push to get these bills passed,” Monahan said, “It’s the right thing to do and it brings Indiana’s alcohol laws to the 21st century.”

Indiana and Connecticut are the only two states that ban the sale of all alcohol on Sundays.

“One of these days, for whatever reason, Indiana will decide to allow Sunday carry out,” Carmichael said. “I don’t know when it will happen, probably sooner rather than later, but in my opinion it’s inevitable.”

Alec Gray is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.