By Amelia Arvesen
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA — What started as 10-gallons of home-brewed beer for Jeff Gill has evolved into Kansas’s largest microbrewery producing 15,000 barrels in 2014.
Gill founded Tallgrass Brewery in Manhattan in 2007, becoming one of 20 craft breweries in a state with an industry ranked 34th in the nation, according to the National Brewers Association.
Tallgrass beer is available in cans and on tap in 14 states. With a new $5 million, 60,000-square-foot brewing facility, Gill said he anticipates a significant production increase this year.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good plan but we do need some help to get some laws fixed,” he said.
Gill and other microbrewers might get some help. The limits on kegs rolling out of Kansas microbreweries could change drastically depending on how legislators respond to proposed liquor law bills in the next few weeks.
A key component of House Bill 2189 would allow breweries to sell beer directly to retailers, public venues and caterers. Currently, brewers must go through a distributor to get on the shelves in bars, restaurants and liquor stores.
Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant in Topeka produces 1,300 barrels a year, a fraction of the maximum 30,000 barrels allowed by state law. Owner Jay Ives said 10 percent of his beer is sold through a distributor to several Topeka restaurants and bars.
He said he sees self-distribution as an advantage for home brewers wanting to enter the industry.
“If we cut out the middleman, which is the distributor, then that markup goes back to the brewery and allows the brewery to reinvest in itself and grow,” Ives said.
The second part of HB2189 would double the manufacturing cap from 30,000 to 60,000 barrels a year, a limit that has quadrupled in two years.
Kansas is bordered by two states with thriving beer industries and higher production caps. Given an unlimited production cap, Colorado’s craft beer culture is bursting with 175 breweries including the large manufacturer MillerCoors.
To the east of Kansas, Missouri is home to the original Anheuser-Busch location in St. Louis and established in 1852, and the state’s regional Boulevard Brewing Company.
For Tallgrass Brewery, Gill said he would be able to utilize the new facility to produce up to 100,000 barrels a year. Gill said he’s aiming for a 2015 output just shy of 30,000 barrels, close to 700,000 gallons.
Free State Brewery in Lawrence, the first brewpub and second largest brewery in Kansas, produced nearly 11,000 barrels in 2014, only one-third of the current manufacturing cap. About 25 percent is sold in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, said Steve Bradt, head brewer at Free State and president of the Kansas Craft Brewers Guild.
“There’s good steady growth in those things so at some point (HB 2189) will be a concern for us,” Bradt said.
Bradt said before he can determine how the law might affect breweries, he wants to see legislators weed out other liquor laws like Uncork Kansas, a movement in support of House Bill 2200 that would allow the sale of full-strength beer, wine and liquor in convenience stores and grocery stores starting in 2018.
Rep. Steven Brunk (R-Wichita) is waiting too. He is the House’s Federal and State Affairs committee chairman, where the microbrewery bill was introduced last month.
Similar legislation to sell in convenience stores has been unsuccessful in recent sessions, and Brunk said any new liquor law deserves careful discussion. He said it would completely modernize a well-established system.
Rep. Mark Hutton (R-Wichita), chairman of the House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development, said they plan to amend HB 2200 on Monday and decide whether to send the bill to a vote.
If brewers and some Kansas legislators have their way, more beer could be readily available to residents in more locations.
“This bill is … not going to hurt anything,” Gill said. “It’s going to help an emerging industry within Kansas.”
Amelia Arvesen is a University of Kansas senior from San Ramon, California, majoring in Journalism.