DENVER—Craft beer brewers said a bill that would allow grocery stores to sell liquor and other spirits could curtail Colorado’s growing beer industry and harm the state’s reputation as the Napa Valley of the beer world.
Representatives of large grocery chains told lawmakers on Wednesday they are willing to honor Colorado’s tradition of promoting local craft beers.
Eric Lucero, a district manager for Safeway, told lawmakers that the company runs a model store in Littleton that is constantly trying new products in its 5,000 square foot liquor store.
But craft brewers said they are afraid they can’t compete with the ability of large stores to buy in bulk.
Laura Long, spokeswoman for Bristol Brewery in Colorado, said Colorado has 114 craft brewers that provide jobs, promote tourism and brew beers with national reputations.
“Some small craft brewers will disappear if access to market is limited,” she told lawmakers.
Briston Brewery’s Laughing Lab Ale was winner of the 2000 and 2006 gold medals, the 1996, 2001, 2002 and 2007 silver medals and the 1994 and 2005 bronze medals in the Scottish Ale category at the Great American Beer Festival, even though the company produces just 7,500 barrels of beer a year.
With an alcohol content of 5.3 percent, it can’t be sold in grocery stores. But state liquor laws that allow sale of craft beers has helped small producers become part of a growth industry, Long said.
Rep. Joe Rice, a Democrat from Littleton, said liquor stores will survive, “but I do worry about microbreweries.”
“It’s not a fluke we have the greatest variety,” Rice said.
The measure given initial approval Wednesday by the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee would allow businesses to convert a retail liquor store license to a liquor-licensed drug store. It would also allow a grocery store to transfer ownership of a liquor store license.
The bill now goes to the House Finance Committee.
Lawmakers said there are currently 300 grocery stores and 1,600 independent liquor stores in Colorado that could sell out and merge over the next decade, leaving the state with 1,300 liquor outlets if the bill becomes law.
