South Carolina breweries can start pouring pints.
Gov. Nikki Haley signed the measure, H.3554, into law today, about two weeks after the House gave it final approval, The Post and Courier reported. It takes effect immediately, according to the bill.
The law lets a brewery sell a customer up to 48 ounces of beer brewed on site for drinking on the premises in a 24-hour period, including samples. No more than 16 ounces of that can be beer above 8% alcohol by weight, and beer served on site is capped at 12%. Until now, breweries could offer only samples on tours: no more than 4 ounces of a beer, or 2 ounces of one above 8%, from up to four brands per customer a day, according to the bill’s marked-up text.
Breweries must track what each customer is served, charge about what local retailers charge, post signs on alcohol content and drunken-driving penalties, train servers and carry at least $1 million in liability insurance, according to the bill. Breweries already licensed have 60 days to file proof of that insurance, and the Post and Courier reported that they must show it before they start selling pints.
The S.C. Brewers Association pushed the bill for more than a year and had sought a 64-ounce limit. Critics worried that visitors would get too drunk on strong beer during tours. Senators voted 31-1 for the compromise, and the House agreed to it 73-37, according to legislative records.
“It’s a compromise, but at the same time it’s a huge victory,” Jaime Tenny, the association’s president and a co-owner of Coast Brewing in North Charleston, told the Post and Courier after the final vote.
“It gets more people through the doors, and anytime you do that you are exposing them to your beer and what you’re doing,” she said.
State Sen. Sean Bennett, a Summerville Republican who backed the bill, said it would create businesses and jobs.
South Carolina has about a dozen breweries, including one in Charleston, three in North Charleston and one in Mount Pleasant, the newspaper reported.
