Update: the last minute push from the PA Beer Alliance and Big Beer brands has FAILED! Thanks to the outpour of support against this, the State has decided to push back the impending tax hike to breweries until July of 2019. We want to thank everyone who acted on this to fight on the behalf of all breweries in Pennsylvania. We will continue to do what is best for the craft brewers and consumers of this state.

From Dan LaBert, Executive Director of the Brewers Of Pennsylvania:

“Today, our members and supporters should feel proud to have been part of a strong, 36-hour advocacy effort that will allow us to continue to work with influential lawmakers and the Department of Revenue to devise an equitable sales tax situation that does not negatively impact our customers. While PBA went all out to achieve a competitive advantage over our small business owners, they failed to persuade enough lawmakers to take their side. As such, I look forward to working hard on behalf of our members over the next 6 months to bring about responsible and fair change to this policy”

BREAKING NEWS! It looks like big beer continues to feel the pressure from craft beer. Per our sources several big beer brands (Miller, Coors, Anheuser Busch and others) have banned together to fight to make sure the recent PA Tax Bill goes into law. As of this writing the senate was set to pass a bill tomorrow, October 17th, to give breweries the exemption of not being double taxed. However, a last minute letter has been sent out to make sure this tax goes into law. You can read the letter here.

The letter fights to make sure craft breweries are paying even more tax out of their tap rooms.

This news effectively kills local tap rooms as we know it in Pennsylvania. 

What sucks even more is that the PA Beer Alliance is joining the big beer brands to make sure this law goes into place. The PA Beer Alliance exists to drive wholesale beer; pushing this tax will allow them to sell more beer out of distributors and less from tap rooms. Jay Wiederhold, President of the PBA can be reached at jay@pabeer.com (according to his profile on their site) to let him know what you really think.

Are you as angry as we are about this? Taking action is easy! The Brewers of Pennsylvania have set up a link where you can message your Senator to fight this tax issue. Click on the link below to send a letter to your representative to make sure you let them know how you feel about this issue.

Let’s keep the tap room alive and well in Pennsylvania!