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Brewing desire MORE HOPS: Chris Peneguy, president of Pelican Craft Brands, says craft brewers struggle to succeed in Louisiana because they aren’t a big priority for the area’s dominant beer distributors.
COLLIN RICHIE
Louisiana brewers believe craft-friendly regulations could help them make the good times roll. BY DAVID JACOBS
PELICAN CRAFT BRANDS launched in 2019 with the goal of filling what company president Chris Peneguy saw as a gap in the marketplace: a distributor focused on craft beers. In the Capital Region, the dominant beer distributors are Mockler Beverage, most closely associated with Budweiser, and Crescent Crown. While large distributors can and do work with small breweries, and those business relationships certainly can succeed, some local brewers feel they aren’t a very high priority for the big wholesalers. “There were no options here for the little guys,” Peneguy says. “They just get lost in these big portfolios.” Most of the breweries the company works with have 30 or 84
fewer employees, he says. Pelican serves both Louisiana-based breweries and brewers from outside the state looking for distribution here. “We couldn’t be in business if we only served Louisiana breweries,” he says. “There’s just not enough [local] product out there.” Despite a national reputation for its local cuisine and “let the good times roll” approach to life, Louisiana is at “the bottom of the heap” in terms of the number of local breweries per capita, says Cary Koch, executive director of the Louisiana Craft Brewers Guild. He says a thriving craft beer sector would provide an economic boost for a state that spends a lot of time and money promoting the local food and culture.
“When people come here, they are surprised by the lack of breweries,” he says. “That’s something that we need to talk about as far as economic development and tourism.” Part of the problem, he believes, is a set of regulations “created decades ago” that don’t line up with what a 21st century brewery needs. The guild supported Republican Rep. Gregory Miller’s resolution, HR210, which passed during the last regular session and asks the House judiciary committee to “study and make recommendations for legislation on the regulation of the craft brewing industry in this state and to report its findings to the House of Representatives prior to the convening of the 2022 Regular Session.”
The pending state study dovetails with a similar effort at the federal level. In July, President Joe Biden issued a wide-ranging executive order meant to promote competition in the American economy. The order names the alcohol business specifically as needing scrutiny and directs the Treasury Department to look into potential barriers to new entrants to the marketplace. Koch says the state review could go in “a thousand different directions.” One thing other states allow that might help Louisiana breweries is letting small brewers sell directly to retailers rather than going through a wholesaler, he says. After Prohibition ended, the American beer industry was divided into three tiers:
BUSINESS REPORT, October 2021 | BusinessReport.com
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