The US beer industry is expected to be a large benefactor of the federal tax bill, with brewers saying that a proposed tax cut will boost 2018 sales as it includes a provision that would cut the federal excise tax in half for small breweries.
In the past decade, breweries accounted for half of beverage manufacturing growth in the US. Whilst there were only 500 breweries in 2006; by 2016, the US counted 2,843 of them, with the biggest jumps occurring in 2013 and 2014.
The owner of Core Brewing in Springdale, Arkansas, Mr Jesse Core believes the industry will “continue to thrive and grow,” explaining: “I think we are at our infancy in this state. I think there’s tremendous growth opportunity in this space.”
His local company employs 12 full-time staff and 25 part-time, and although Mr Core believes in growth, he is convinced the focus should remain on the quality: “A group of us are trying to get away from focusing on size and instead really focus on the quality of the beer.”
“We’re just all trying to work together to create the best beer culture together.”
Under the tax bill which Congress just passed, the federal excise tax on beer would be diminished to $3.50 per barrel from $7 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels for any US brewers producing less than 2 million barrels annually.
Mr Core things this will achieve tremendous results for small breweries: “It’s a great thing for craft beer.”
“With the money we’ll save we can hire another person, and that is what we’ll do. … What I would hope is that our legislators continue to create channels and paths to allow microbreweries to grow and thrive.”
“Microbrewing and distilling do great things for our economy in terms of creating tourism destinations. They are great revenue generators for the state.”
Source:
Schol !