The state’s craft beverage industries are pushing for a simplified system of regulation in Wisconsin.
Ryan Prellwitz, (pictured here) president of the Wisconsin Winery Association, says a structure known as universal licensing would “break down the barriers between one producer and the next.”
As he explains it, this would be a shift from the current three-tier system which sets separate standards for liquor, beer and wine producers and also bars many businesses that make alcohol from distributing it.
Under a universal licensing system, “essentially you get an alcohol producers permit, and that gives you the ability to produce wine, cider, beer, distilled,” he said in a recent interview at Vines and Rushes Winery in Ripon, which he owns.
He acknowledges some different regulations might be needed, such as a higher fire code requirement for distilled spirits, but argues: “Why create another barrier to production capacity?”
See more at WisBusiness.com.
