Pints and fermenters. The Green Flash tasting room.

I learned yesterday from beer industry insiders that the AGLC has quietly changed a regulation that prohibited beer sales at brewery locations. Under the former/existing rules a brewery was restricted to only offering free samples for visitors to their brewery. To sell and serve full size glasses, the brewery would have to essentially operate a full-scale taproom, complete with kitchen, etc. Over the years Wild Rose has done this, as has Hog’s Head more recently. Yellowhead also has an event space serving a similar purpose. At other breweries all they could offer you is a 100-ml sample.

That rule has now been changed. Breweries can now have a small bar inside the brewery where they can sell full-size pints of their wares (but those had BETTER be full 568-ml pints, boys!).

The old rule always struck me as kind of an odd policy. Why forbid beer sales at a brewery? It is not like there is a risk of offending anyone (why ELSE would they be in a brewery in the first place?). When I travel to the U.S. seeing a small bar tucked in a corner of the brewery space is common. Many breweries will have a tasting room where you can purchase pints of their various offerings for drinking on premises. The hours of operation vary from place to place, but the consistent element is a dedicated space where people can come and enjoy a pint, maybe while they wait for their growler to be filled or just because it is just as convenient as popping by the local pub on the way home.

These taste rooms never do a tonne of business – they are mostly an add-on for most breweries – but they offer both a small stream of revenue and a source of additional traffic to the brewery. While the sale of that one pint hardly makes a difference to the bottom line, the customer is likely to walk away with a six-pack or a growler or maybe even some merchandise. It is just another way to grow the brand.

So, at any rate, as of now Alberta breweries can operate a small bar without the hassle of a kitchen. They can set up a space somewhere in the public areas of the brewery to sell pints of their freshly made beer. Really, can you imagine fresher beer than served on tap at the brewery who made it?

By any stretch a fairly small change, but judging from the reactions of the beer guys I spoke with yesterday, it it a big deal for the breweries. They are quite elated.

Plus I now have another excuse to loiter around breweries and take in the malty atmosphere (as if I don’t have enough excuses already).