We've got good news and bad news for New York beer drinkers. The good news? Our Happy Hours are probably safe for the time being. The bad news? Because of changes in the tax rules, buying local beer around town is probably about to get a bit pricier. "We're definitely going to have to pass it on," Larry Goldstein of Long Island brewery Spider Bite Beer tells us.
"We're going to do it with any new beers that we have coming out," he went on. "New brand lines that we haven't already released, we'll have to add a few dollars." Why? Well, because of a lawsuit from a Massachusetts-based brewery, a break that allowed local breweries to excise the taxes from the first 200,000 barrels of beer brewed has been nixed. And the money on the line isn't anything to scoff at. "Especially going into the city, it adds up to almost $5 a keg in taxes. Add in driving out there..."
Most brewers aren't jumping to raise prices on their current beers though, at least not yet. Some folks, like Steve Hindy from the Brooklyn Brewery, are hoping that "something's going to change" and waiting it out. To that end, local brewers will definitely have something to talk about at the Craft Brewers Conference this week in San Diego! According to Ken Landin, of Crossroads Brewing Company, the reinstated taxes (along with seriously increased labeling taxes) was a major point of discussion at this weekend's TAP NY festival.
"Its a tough pill to swallow," he told us. "Schumer just went through this whole thing to bring down the Federal excise tax and now it seems like we're just giving it back to Albany." Landin says that his brewery hasn't figured out how it will offset the extra costs just yet. Right now he and others are focusing on working with the New York State Brewers Association to write letters to Albany to let their displeasure be heard.
Meanwhile, Goldstein had a nice argument in favor of bringing back the previous break: "I think of it almost like in-state and out-of-state schools. If you live in-state you get a discount off of tuition. I don't see what that's allowed and then all of a sudden because a big guy doesn't like that he has to pay the taxes, the little guys get hurt."
