HB 2470 – Federal and State Affairs has added several liquor bills to this legislation which is now the Liquor Conference Committee report. Initially, HB 2470 was a bill to allow microbreweries within the state of Kansas to contract with other microbreweries for production and packaging of beer and hard cider. both barrels of beer and hard cider produced pursuant to such contracts would be included as part of the production limits for both contracting licensees. Calendar-year production limits in continuing law are 60,000 barrels of beer and 100,000 gallons of hard cider. An amendment to allow members of the public to be judges at beer competitions was added on the Senate floor. That amendment was dropped by the conference committee.
Bills added in conference include:
HB 2766 and SB 433 – Self-serve beer dispensers – Introduced and supported by Topeka downtown developers and winner of a business startup contest. Requires video surveillance, moves the wine dispenser oversight rules and regs into statute, and limits the volume sold on each purchaser card.
HB 2475 – Microbrewery rules changes – Selling refillable and sealable containers (growlers) to consumers for off-premises consumption: such containers could not contain less than 32 fluid ounces or more than 64 fluid ounces of beer. Licensees would be required to affix labels to all containers sold with the name of the product and the microbrewery. The bill changes the alcohol content limit for beer from 10% ABW to 16% ABW. Combined with HB 2476 in committee, then added to 2470 in conference.
HB 2476 – Defines alcoholic candy as alcoholic liquor, thus allowing the sale of candy and food products containing alcohol above .05 ABW. Controversy emerged on the Senate floor in a debate over the percentage, with Senator Denning amending to 1.0 ABW. Concerns have come from Senator Bollier regarding Andres Chocolates and other producers. The Conference Committee returned the threshold to .05 ABW based on federal TTB definitions, but the House rejected the report, returning it to conference. Currently, the report sets the threshold at .05% ABW for manufacturers and 1.0% ABW for retail sales.
HB 2482 – Day Drinking Bill – allows drinking establishments to begin selling alcohol at 6 a.m. instead of current restriction at 9 a.m. Legislation was requested by a restaurant that features breakfast and moved through local government committees rather than traditional route through federal and state affairs. The Senate Commerce Committee amended the bill to: ● Increase the number of hours in which farm wineries, microbreweries, and microdistilleries would be allowed to sell their respective alcoholic products; and ● Allow farm winery outlets to sell individual drinks. The latter amendment attracted debate due to concerns about the “level playing field” for restaurants. A farm winery outlet would be allowed to serve wine by the glass manufactured by the farm winery licensee, provided the outlet is in a county where the sale of alcoholic liquor is permitted. Wine sold pursuant to the bill would not be subject to the Club and Drinking Establishment Act, and a drinking establishment license would not be required to sell the drink. Under current law, a farm winery may have up to three licensed outlets, but the outlets are not permitted to sell individual drinks. The conference committee did not retain the “wine by the glass” amendment. (Hours - Farm wineries, microbreweries, and microdistilleries would be allowed to sell their respective alcoholic products in their original containers between 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. on any day. Current law limits the hours these establishments may sell alcohol on Sundays, between 12:00 p.m. and 6 p.m. for farm wineries and between 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. for microbreweries and microdistilleries.)
