How Stupid Is It?

Complaining about the Brewpub Bill is the closest I'll likely get to writing a regular feature on this weblog. Thanks to the bill's existence, RePublic will be required by law to sell other breweries' beer. If Dotty's was suddenly forced to sell another restaurant's burgers, you might ask "how did that other restaurant get so much political influence, and how could our legislators cater to it so shamelessly?"

Since the law doesn't quantify an amount to sell, I assume that I'd need to have an alternative beer available at all times. After exhaustive research and number crunching, I'm projecting that RePublic will sell one six-pack of it per year (rounded up to the nearest six-pack). Yes, that will allow me to have a bottle on-hand for anyone who wants to order one. If I can't find a distributor who's willing to drive to my pub every four years to sell me a case of beer, will the courts force me to stock excess inventory and/or spend money to advertise a beer that I didn't brew?

Changing gears, sort of, an ideal situation would be to have a brewery in the same building as the pub. However, in these tough economic times, it would be far less capital-intensive (i.e. easier to raise the required money) to open a pub in an existing tavern and build an off-site brewery in some inexpensive warehouse space. Until October of last year, we would have had that option. Boo to the Brewpub Bill.