Sherrill says he’d like to start bottling his lager, but to make it cost effective, he needs to produce more beer. See what's stopping him.
GREENSBORO -- The owner of a Greensboro brewery wants to change how many barrels of beer the facility can brew each year.
Bill Sherrill of Red Oak Brewery has lobbied the legislature to increase the amount from 2,000 barrels to 25,000 barrels. His latest attempts to make it 60,000 barrels failed, and he is now seeking support before trying again.
“We have people coming in all the time wanting to buy bottles,” said Sherrill. “Sales won't be the problem; it's getting the North Carolina government to allow us to do it.”
Sherrill says he’d like to start bottling his lager, but to make it cost effective, he needs to produce more beer.
“All we want to do is go to 60,000 barrels, which is the federal cutoff between a small brewery and a large brewery,” he said. “Give us the ability to grow.”
Sherrill wants to produce it himself, because he says he can’t count on distributors to follow the ancient Bavarian rules of brewing like he does. But officials at the Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association say distributors will because they’ve signed contracts.
“Everything from the production of it right through to the distribution at the retailers is dictated by these contracts so every brewer -- whether they be large or small -- can lay out to a distributor how they'd like their beer to be handled,” said Dean Plunkett, executive director of the N.C. Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association.
“It was set up many years ago and has worked very well because it let's each state and each local community decide how they want beer, wine and spirits distributed.”
The year 2009 is the earliest another similar bill can be introduced. Sherrill hopes to drum up support from local politicians and customers by that time.