Leaders say craft beverage industry has positive impact on economy

Representatives from Montana’s brewing and distilling industry sat down with members of the Western Governors’ Association last week to discuss challenges and solutions facing the booming industry.

The panel featured Acacia Coast, State Guilds Manager for the Brewers Association; Tim O’Leary, founder of KettleHouse Brewing in Missoula; and John McKee, owner and distiller at Headframe Spirits in Butte. This year’s WGA conference was hosted in Whitefish at the Performing Arts Center.

The talk focused on the growth in jobs created from new upstart breweries and distillers, legislation designed to relieve stresses from excise taxes and how governors can aid growth in the beer and spirits industries in their respective states.

Coast said with brewers and distillers facing challenges with market access, material costs and the high taxes of the industries, it’s imperative to learn how to work with the governors for a mutually beneficial relationship.

“Craft brewers are entrepreneurs and risk takers. They put community before corporations, they put people before profit and they put beer before the bottom line,” she said.

Looking at job opportunities created through breweries, Coast reported that one new brewery job indirectly generates about 34.5 additional jobs in related industries, such as agriculture, packaging and distribution. Currently 5,300 breweries have also produced 128,700 jobs, she said.

The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, sponsored by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, would reduce taxes for craft breweries and distillers around the country.

The bill, introduced in Congress in January, cuts in half the excise taxes for small breweries and would also cut distillers’ excise tax.

Coast said every $1 in excise tax relief translates to $8 of economic growth within the economy of the brewing industry.

“The beer industry is a jobs industry,” Coast said. “Really, the Brewers Association strive to be a resource to you in your efforts to better our great country, and let’s do that one delicious, refreshing pint at a time.”

McKee focused on the tourism aspect of the industries. Headframe Spirits is currently rated by TripAdvisor as the third best thing to do while visiting Butte. What Headframe offers isn’t simply a nice drink, McKee said, but an experience visitors can take home with them as well.

“We’re not just making things, we’re not just employing people, but people want to come to see what we’re doing,” he said. “They want to spend time, they want to spend dollars, they want to tell that story when they go out in the world.”

Governor Matthew Mead of Wyoming said a big priority for his state’s beer and spirits industries is to continue to facilitate partnerships between the brewers and local agriculture.

O’Leary pointed to state sponsored programs that KettleHouse has benefited from while supporting local farmers.

“There are a few government and state sponsored programs that have actually helped us support Montana farmers. The growth through agriculture program that we utilized allowed us to find a grain bin that we can fill with Montana grown and malted barley,” he said.

Looking forward, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada asked how governors can continue to aid the explosive growth in the beer and spirits industries.

“When we show up at the courthouse and we show up at the legislature, just have our backs. Booze and hooch and beer and wine, it’s goofy,” McKee said. “If you want to help us grow, if you want to keep seeing those numbers go up — 46 percent annual growth. Just give them a hand, and that’s what we need.”

O’Leary also noted that in order to maintain the steady flow of tourism, a huge portion of his customers, it’s necessary to preserve the things that keep people coming into Montana.

“Without that scenery, without that clear air and those beautiful mountains and that clear water, that removes some of the incentive for people to come support us and visit us. So that would be my plug, let’s keep out West healthy with our forest and streams,” he said.