At last call, the Alaska Legislature saved a cocktail for you.<\/p>\n
In the final hours of the 30th Alaska Legislature, Rep. Adam Wool, D-Fairbanks, offered an amendment<\/a> that preserves the ability of the state’s craft distilleries to serve mixed drinks. Mixers must be nonalcoholic, but Wool’s amendment nullifies a legal ruling that would have canceled distilleries’ cocktails this summer.<\/p>\n “Honestly, this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with almost as long as we’ve had our doors open, and we’re excited to get back to business as usual,” said Brandon Howard of Amalga Distillery.<\/p>\n That wasn’t all: the Legislature also declined to cut serving sizes at breweries and distilleries across the state.<\/p>\n That decision came at a cost; the proposal to cut serving sizes died when a wider, broadly supported, reform of Alaska’s alcohol laws failed to pass before lawmakers adjourned early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n That reform, known as Senate Bill 76<\/a>, was sponsored by Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, and was the result of six years’ work by a group that includes people who serve alcohol and people who deal with the problems it causes.<\/p>\n “We hoped to see the bill pass. That was a little bit of a disappointment there at the end,” said Pete Hanson, director of the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the start of the legislative session, SB 76 included a provision<\/a> calling for alcohol manufacturers — breweries and distilleries — to sell 80 percent of their product wholesale. Breweries and distilleries vehemently protested. Most in the state make a significant proportion of their money from direct sales in “tasting rooms.”<\/p>\n “It was a dealbreaker for us. Not only would it harm current tasting rooms … it would be detrimental to the point of possibly shutting them down,” said Ryan MacKinster, director of the Brewers’ Guild of Alaska.<\/p>\n “We have about six breweries in planning, and all of them said that if this went through, it would limit their cash flow so much that they wouldn’t be able to open,” he said.<\/p>\n In response to those concerns, the Senate removed the 80\/20 provision, but this started another problem.<\/p>\n Without the 80\/20 provision, bar owners and liquor store owners felt the bill leaned too heavily away from their interests. In extensive testimony<\/a>, they said tasting rooms as they exist today are blurring the line between what is a bar and what is a manufacturer. As they pointed out to lawmakers, most visitors to distilleries aren’t visiting tasting rooms with the intent of trying something and buying a bottle if they like it. They’re visiting to drink cocktails.<\/p>\n