• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers

Nebraska brewers and distributors find middle ground on self-distribution rights

April 16, 2018Keith Gribbins

Upstream Brewing Co.
Metaphoric clouds begin to part over Omaha’s Upstream Brewing Co.

The three-tier system has finally come to a compromise in the Cornhusker state. Introduced in January 2017, legislative bill LB632 aimed to change provisions relating to the Nebraska Liquor Control Act and the Music Licensing Agency Act. The bill does a few things, but for breweries it proposed a requirement that brewers would first have to ship its products to a distributor’s warehouse, and then ship it to a bar, restaurant, retailer and even their own tasting room before it could be sold. Beautiful Nebraska is a wide and expansive Great Plains state, and brewers felt the bill was unnecessarily forcing them to spend more money, time and resources going through a “liquor distributor” that might not be all that close.

Chief sponsor Sen. Tyson Larson said the bill was needed to 1) make it easier to collect excise taxes and 2) to protect the state from litigation — as in-state breweries would get an unconstitutional advantage over out-of-state brewers, and that might spell trouble. Fun fact: Larson is also a big advocate of lion hunting in the state. Luckily, the distributors and brewers seem to have come to an agreement. According to the Kearney Hub (a publication in central Nebraska for the last 130 years):

But on Tuesday, a compromise crafted over the past few months was presented during a public hearing before the State Liquor Control Commission. No one objected. The only testifier, an attorney for the brewers, Vanessa Silke of Omaha, said that once the parties sat down in the same room, they realized they needed to work together, not against each other.

What’s next?

The proposed rule change — which must be approved by the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and governor — clarifies that craft brewers can deliver their products to their own tasting rooms without a trip to a distributor.

Beer sent to other retail locations can first come “at rest” at either a distributor’s warehouse or on a distributor’s delivery truck.

See world, people can work together. Told you.

Upstream Brewing Co.
Nebraska craft brewers say bill LB632 limits their growth (and that’s exactly what it does)
Nebraska brewers battle excise tax, distribution law
Nebraska brewers battle for better distribution, tax laws
Backyard BBQ 2025 ALL DATES Poster
Meanwhile Brewing and Uptown Sports Club host 2nd annual Backyard BBQ Summer Series; 100% of proceeds benefit central Texas flood relief efforts
Lawson’s Finest Liquids’ New Cosmic Shift IPA-001
Lawson’s Finest Liquids’ new Cosmic Shift IPA will benefit 10 nonprofits across 9 states

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Devin Barras says

    April 16, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    Leah Marie

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Lagers, lemons, and legendary collabs: 6 beers to know this week
  • Meanwhile Brewing and Uptown Sports Club host 2nd annual Backyard BBQ Summer Series; 100% of proceeds benefit central Texas flood relief efforts
  • Athletic Brewing extends Arsenal F.C. partnership, expands non-alcoholic beer options at Emirates Stadium
  • Abstrax Hops calls out DMTS flaws in hop extracts in new white paper

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • 2025 L.L.Bean 4pk Mock UpLagers, lemons, and legendary collabs: 6 beers to know this week
    July 17, 2025
  • UK_ArsenalAnnouncement_MD_PressAthletic Brewing extends Arsenal F.C. partnership, expands non-alcoholic beer options at Emirates Stadium
    July 16, 2025
  • gross flavor man faceAbstrax Hops calls out DMTS flaws in hop extracts in new white paper
    July 15, 2025
  • Allagash White 12 Packs_horizontal coastDistribution news: Allagash returns to Ohio + moves from Outlaw, Mother Earth and more
    July 14, 2025
  • face palm embarrassed guy beard cbb cropJune Beer Purchasers’ Index shows craft continues to sink
    July 14, 2025
  • Deschutes non alcoholic beer brands toasting in the wildernessNon-alcoholic beer is booming in 2025 — here’s why craft brewers should pay attention
    July 9, 2025

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2025 · CBB Media LLC