It is not surprising that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper already staked out a position on the beer war as grocery stores move for approval to sell full-strength beer and wine.
Hickenlooper, after all, is the beer governor. He made his name co-founding ., and later as governor had beer taps installed in the governor’s mansion.
In the past, Hick has opposed changing the law to allow grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine. the issue again in the legislature or possibly on November’s ballot, Hickenlooper told reporters last week he hasn’t heard anything new to change his position.
But plenty has changed in the beer world since Hickenlooper was intimately involved.
Colorado’s craft beer industry has exploded with more than 300 brewery and brew pub licenses — a 178 percent increase since 2009.
And it’s not just in Colorado. Craft beer production is one of the fastest growing and most popular alcoholic beverage segments in the United States.
In Colorado, the industry has flourished under existing liquor laws, which allow retailers to sell alcoholic beverages only in one store in the state. That created an avenue for brewers to market directly to liquor stores.
Brewers fear by allowing stores like Safeway and King Soopers to sell full-strength beer and wine in all of their stores, the chains will take over and exclude small craft brewers.
They worry shelf space could be dominated by big beer labels like Budweiser and Coors, cutting into their profit margins, or that small liquor stores would be forced out of business by the competition.
Brewers do raise a valid question: Why mess with something that is not broken?
Grocery stores, however, say the system is broken for them. Elsewhere, they say, craft beer makes up 30 percent of their overall beer sales but not here.
They argue the system is inconvenient for shoppers, who want to be able to buy everything in one store.
Expect both sides to spend millions of dollars to make their points. Consider what happened in Washington state in 2011, when Costco almost entirely funded a $23 million campaign to get rid of state liquor stores and allow hard liquor to be sold beside beer and wine in groceries.
The measure passed, but consumers now say .
The opposite may happen here, says University of Denver economics professor Jack Strauss, who was commissioned by grocery stores to write a of beer in stores.
He predicts beer and wine prices would drop by 18 percent in Colorado if grocery store sales were allowed, saving the average Colorado household $750 over three years.
However, said they believe the top factor influencing brewery growth in the state is “increased market access” — which they feel would diminish if grocery stores got in the game.
It would be devastating for Colorado to change its booze laws in the name of convenience only to pop the state’s magnificent craft beer bubble.
Nevertheless, Colorado brewers are challenged to show why things would be vastly different here than in other states — 42 of which allow stores to sell beer and wine.
The craft beer industry is no longer a fragile, obscure business model as it was when Hickenlooper was slinging suds.
Nationwide, the industry has become a robust, mass consumer juggernaut that doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
The question is: How would allowing for the sale in Colorado grocery stores cause that to fail?
E-mail Jeremy Meyer at jpmeyer@denverpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: jpmeyerdpost
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