As you may have seen, Governor Wolf recently announced that all of Pennsylvania will enter either Yellow or Green phases on June 5th, 2020. Which is the first step in the goal of businesses returning to normal.

However, that does not mean normal will be returned immediately. Depending on what phase your county is in, is dependent on how businesses will be operating. As the leading voice in Pennsylvania craft beer, we thought it would be important to discuss how this impacts the craft breweries throughout the keystone state.

The first important step in all of this is to read the guidelines set by the state. You can find a link to those guidelines here. Also, it is important to know which breweries are in which counties, as not all counties will be in the green phase on June 5th. You can see a list of breweries by county here.

Matt Andersen, of Norris McLaughlin, is a leading voice in Pennsylvania beer litigation, recently expanded on what this all means for the different phases in our Facebook group as well as broke down what it all means in the blog post.

Here are the most important details from that post.

What it means for breweries located in counties in the Green phase:

• Bar seating may be utilized if customers are seated and comply with physical distancing guidelines of at least six feet or physical barriers between customers. Standing in a bar area will not be permitted.

• A maximum of four customers that have a common relationship may sit together at the bar while adhering to the physical distancing guidelines or barriers between other customers.

What it means for breweries located in counties in the Yellow phase:

• Indoor areas, including bar areas of restaurants and retail foodservice businesses, must be closed to customers except for through-traffic. Non-bar seating in outdoor areas (i.e., tables or counter seats that do not line up to a bar or food service area) may be used for customer seating.

• Customers being served must be seated at a table.

• All businesses and employees in the restaurant and retail food service industry authorized to conduct in-person activities in yellow phase counties pursuant to this guidance are prohibited from doing the following:

• Using self-service food or drink options, such as buffets, salad bars, and condiments.

• Condiments must be removed from tables and dispensed by employees upon the request of a customer.

• Using reusable menus, other than digital menus sanitized after each use.

• Refilling food and beverage containers or implements brought in by customers.

The last bullet point is an important one as it pertains to growler fills. “As of June 5th breweries in yellow counties won’t be able to fill growlers brought in by customers” Andersen confirmed.

As more is confirmed we will continue to update.