Illinois breweries push legislation to keep delivering
Bill would allow brewers to ship directly to consumers for first time
Home beer delivery could become a fixture in Illinois thanks to legislation proposed Friday.
Breweries have been able to deliver beer to your doorstep since last March to help stem the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the legislation would make the ability to deliver beer permanent, as well as allow breweries to use third-party services such as Uber Eats or DoorDash to get their beers directly to consumers.
Among other things, the bill, drafted by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild and sponsored by Democratic Sen. Bill Cunningham of Chicago and Democratic Rep. Will Davis of Homewood, would also allow breweries to ship beer directly to consumers for the first time.
Danielle D’Alessandro, executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, said expanding the routes for breweries to sell directly to consumers is “a natural evolution of consumer preferences.” D’Alessandro said she wouldn’t expect the legislation to create radical change in terms of how beer is bought and sold, but it would offer flexibility for both small business owners and consumers.
“This flexibility will really help a small brewer say, ‘How do I make my business work?’” D’Alessandro said. “Maybe delivery doesn’t work for some, but shipping will.”
Most states, including Illinois, allow wine to be shipped, and a handful allow beer to be shipped. The proposed law would allow Illinois to ship beer and also allow Illinois residents to receive beer from some out-of-state breweries where shipping is legal.
Bob Myers, president of the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois, a trade group that represents the state’s beer distributors, said his organization will likely oppose the legislation.
He accused the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild of aiming “basically to destroy the three-tier system as it is in law now.”
That system ensures that most beer touches three businesses between brewing and consumption: a brewery (the first tier), a distributor (the second tier) and a retailer (whether a store, bar, restaurant or venue, which is the third tier). Myers said he is concerned that the legislation would hurt distributors and retailers.
“I will be happy to sit down with them and discuss their needs and wants, but we have to determine is this need or is it greed and go from there,” Myers said.
Mark Legenza, owner and head brewer of On Tour Brewing, which has delivered beer to consumers during the pandemic, said he would like to continue the practice and would also start shipping if able because “it is in line with consumer behavior.”
“How often is the Amazon truck in front of your house or your neighbor’s house? Everything is being purchased online,” he said. “All these companies are having success not because they’re great companies, but because people want to have things delivered to their homes.”
Legenza said he would also be eager to begin shipping beer, and gets an inquiry every couple of weeks that he is forced to decline.
While neither shipping nor delivery would make a brewery a viable business, he said, they could help
drive sales and build brand awareness.
“We want to be consumer-focused and servicedriven and this is in line with that,” Legenza said. “Getting local beer delivered directly to your home is pretty special.”
Other breweries, while supporting modernizing laws regulating how beer is sold, won’t necessarily embrace the changes. Dovetail Brewing has forged a robust delivery business since the pandemic began, breaking the city and suburbs into nine zones, and visiting each of those zones approximately every two months.
Delivery has “definitely made a difference” to Dovetail’s bottom line while staying afloat during the pandemic, brewery co-founder Hagen Dost said. But he’s unsure whether the brewery will continue to do it even if it’s able post-pandemic.
There are a few reasons. For one, he said, Dovetail’s business model was designed to rely heavily on sales in its North Center taproom. He’s hopeful that will again be the case once the pandemic is tamed. The brewery also may not want to deal long-term with the logistics of delivery.
But also, he said, he doesn’t want Dovetail to be seen as competing with its distributor or the stores and bars that sell Dovetail beer.
Still, Dost said, he supports the legislation.
“Modernization of the law is going to create opportunities for innovation,” he said.
Among other things, the law to be introduced Friday would also allow brewpubs to self-distribute a limited amount of beer and to be able to sell cocktails to go.
D’Alessandro said she anticipated objections from the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois.
However, she said, the pandemic has made updating the law necessary.
“We’ve demonstrated with a year of delivery that the sky has not fallen,” D’Alessandro said. “We’ve seen it work and its been demonstrated that it’s just an additional option for a small business owner.”