No doubt your beer is fantastic, loyal CBB reader, but are customers breaking the law in order to drink it? Perhaps! At least if you are New Glarus Brewing. Craft drinkers in Minnesota have a hankering, and with New Glarus stuck on the other side of the border (distributed exclusively in Wisconsin), what other recourse is there than to buy a few kegs and sell them from a tap with no license?
From Prairie Business:
Investigators say Maple Tavern manager bought six kegs of Spotted Cow retail in Hudson, then resold the beer at the Minnesota bar. Distributing alcohol that is not permitted for sale in Minnesota is a felony offense.
New Glarus co-owner Deb Carey said this wasn’t the first time businesses from outside of Wisconsin have tried to sell the beer, but she’s not quite sure why anyone would break the law for her product.
“I don’t really have an answer,” Carey said. “I just make the beer. But there are people that travel great distances to get our beer, just like there are people that travel far for some of Minnesota’s great beers.”
Carey said her company’s desire to stay within the boundaries of Wisconsin — “We don’t plan on expanding outside Wisconsin, now or really ever. … We are growing every year, we just don’t want to grow outside of Wisconsin,” she said.
Definitely head on over and check out the rest of this story.
