Bill would overhaul alcohol laws: Expanded rights for breweries, extended RNC bar hours, while wedding barns feel squeezed

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Wisconsin lawmakers are considering the creation of a new office dedicated strictly to enforcing the state's alcohol laws. Beyond that, a bill moving through the Capitol would change a series of laws affecting breweries, wineries, distilleries and rural event venues commonly known as "wedding barns."

The Assembly's state affairs committee heard testimony Tuesday on the wide-ranging bill, which first and foremost, would create the Division of Alcohol Beverages within the Department of Revenue.

That new enforcement agency would oversee updated laws governing how beer, wine and liquor producers are able to sell their products.

Russ Klisch, president of Lakefront Brewery on Milwaukee's east side, said the most significant change to his business would be gaining the ability to produce a wider variety of beverages, including canned cocktails.

"That could be positive for us, and I'd like to think it could be positive for employment, help us grow," Klisch said. "And it's just nice to have other products to have available for your customers."

Such an expansion would be possible because breweries would gain the ability to also act as rectifiers. Klisch said, in the past, he had to turn down a request from Summerfest to create a specialty wine cooler for the annual music festival.

Not only could breweries now mass produce mixed drinks, Klisch said, technically, it's illegal currently for brewers to make hard seltzers under the state's liquor laws.

"The [bill] clarifies that a brewery can [make hard seltzers] now," he said. "In the past, it only said that to make something taxed like beer, you had to have malt in it."

The bill would also allow breweries to operate as many as three retail stores outside of their brewery, which could benefit large craft producers like New Glarus, which doesn't sell its beer outside of Wisconsin. 

Some of the other provisions in the bill include:

• Breweries could sell beers produced outside of Wisconsin, which is currently not allowed
• The closing time for wineries would be pushed back from 9 p.m. to midnight
• Bars could stay open until 4 a.m. during the 2024 Republican National Convention in the counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Dodge, Rock, Dane, Columbia, Fond du Lac and Sheboygan

The powerful Tavern League of Wisconsin supports the bill, as do mega brewers, Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors. Kwik Trip convenience stores also registered in favor of the bill, as has the Wisconsin Grocers Association and the Wisconsin Craft Beverage Coalition.

"It brings us in line with most other states," Scott Stenger, government affairs director for the Tavern League of Wisconsin, said.
"We have not had a dedicated enforcement agency in this state, and it's time that we do."

The only group registered against the bill is the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

Wedding barn operators feel targeted

Jean Bahn testified against the bill Tuesday at the state Capitol. The owner of Farmview Event Barn, which is located between Berlin and Ripon, said the bill would crush her business.

One provision of the legislation states event venues would have to either get a liquor license or only operate six days a year. Without a license, venues would have to require guests to either bring their own beer and wine or hire a caterer.

"I bring people in from all over the country to my venue, that spend money, that learn about Wisconsin, that appreciate the beauty of the rural Wisconsin area," Bahn said. "Apparently, they didn't give that any consideration."

The venue hosts weddings between May and October, and Bahn said she's already nearly booked for the full 2024 season.

Stenger said the tavern league's priority was regulating the wedding barn industry because it felt barn owners were playing by a different set of rules.

"Either we all have a license, and compete against each other fairly, or we don't have a license," Stenger said. "My members do weddings. Our weddings are private events, yet we have to be licensed."

Bahn said it would be difficult to get a license in her situation because her farm was in the state's Farmland Preservation Program, and she worried it wouldn't be possible to re-zone part of the property to get a liquor license.

Bahn said only being able to host six events a year, and being confined to only allowing beer and wine, would crush her business, which began six years ago as a way to use a barn that went vacant when the family got out of the dairy cattle industry.

"That signature vodka lemonade?" Bahn said. "That signature rum and coke drink that they wanted to serve? That would be illegal."

Other wedding barn venues, including Lilac Acres near Waukesha, told CBS 58 the bill wouldn't affect them because they're already licensed. 

Britt Cudaback, communications director for Gov. Tony Evers, confirmed Tuesday the Evers administration had been talking to some stakeholders about the bill.

When asked if Evers supported the bill as it's written, Cudaback said the governor's office was working with the Department of Revenue "regarding some technical changes and addressing resources for the department to implement the bill’s changes on an ongoing basis."