Tavern owners and breweries square off

Montana tavern owners took their complaints about microbreweries to Helena, claiming the new businesses have become full-scale retail establishments with too few restrictions.

In a packed meeting of the House Business and Labor Committee on March 26, representatives of both sides presented their case.

Tavern owners claimed existing law was intended to allow breweries to have tasting rooms, but the law was revised in the 1990s to allow visitors up to 48 ounces per day up to 8 p.m., and now some breweries sell nearly all their product in tasting rooms.

The tavern owners expressed support for House Bill 616, sponsored by Rep. Roger Hagan, R-Great Falls, which calls for new licensing requirements and would require breweries with retail sales to purchase a $100,000 license.

Kelley Christensen, who recently opened the Desert Mountain Brewery in Columbia Falls with her husband Shawn, said HB 616’s licensing requirement would put them out of business.

“HB 616 is a job-killing bill,” she said. “It would reduce brewery startups, it discourages entrepreneurship, it is anti-competitive and anti-small business.”

Christensen urged support for House Joint Resolution 18, sponsored by Rep. Christy Clark, R-Choteau, which calls for an interim study of the issue to reconcile the differences between the groups.

Big Sky Brewing Co., of Missoula, which is too big to offer a tasting room, expressed support for HB 616 because it would create a special license that would allow the company to open up a tasting room and even acquire an all-beverage license for a future retail food business.

All other brewery representatives at the meeting opposed HB 616. Farmers who sell grain to the breweries also opposed Hagan’s bill. No action was taken on the two bills.