Statehouse bill would allow online sales, home delivery of Illinois craft beer

[February 21, 2023]  By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – In a world where people buy everything under the sun online, some at the state Capitol are looking to let consumers buy Illinois-made craft beer the same way and have it delivered directly to their homes.

Ray Stout, executive director of the Illinois Craft Beer Guild, says 90-year-old state liquor laws have shut Illinois’ 297 regional craft brewers out of the e-commerce marketplace.

“In the 1930s, nobody would have imagined this thing called the internet where people can have everything delivered to their houses,” Stout told the The Center Square. “Our laws need to be modernized to keep up with the wave of time.”

The Illinois Craft Beer Guild is behind legislation in the Illinois General Assembly that could make that happen. Senate Bill 2193, sponsored by state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, would allow consumers to buy a limited number of cases of Illinois-made beer every year and have the beer delivered directly to their homes.

Since 2007, Illinois consumers have been able to buy wine for home delivery, Stout said. It is time for craft brewers to have the same opportunity.

The change in the law would be particularly welcome for craft brewers right now because local breweries are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic. Before COVID, Illinois craft brewing was a $3.2 billion dollar industry with close to 350 regional breweries.

For the typical brewer, 70% of sales came from on-site tap rooms and in-person purchases. Three years out from the start of the pandemic, on site sales remain down by 20% to 30%, Stout said. As many as 40 craft breweries have gone out of business altogether.

Overall, sales have dropped to $2.8 billion. Home delivery has the potential to keep the majority of small regional brewers up and running, Stout said.

“Direct to consumer is a good path to allow small breweries to compete alongside the 3 tier [distribution] system,” he said.

Stout points to artisan producer Scratch Brewing Company in Ava, Illinois, as an example. Scratch makes award winning “foraged beer” from native plants and ingredients found in the Shawnee National Forest region. Distributors don’t carry Scratch because its beers don’t taste even remotely like mainstream American lagers that Illinois beer drinkers are used to. Its beers are made seasonally, in small batches. They are sold in growlers and 25-ounce bottles.

“People all over the state love Scratch, but the only way they can get it is to drive seven hours,” Stout said, noting direct shipping would give Scratch the market reach it deserves.

Stout estimates that 150 other Illinois craft brewers are in the same boat as Scratch where they need a way to get their beers to their customers. And a lot of them are struggling.

“Craft breweries are small local businesses,” Stout said. “We need to support them or they are going to be gone.”

Internet sales and home delivery can keep them viable, he said.

Stout calls craft brewers “cornerstone businesses” because they are gathering places that are important for local communities. Local breweries contribute to a region’s sense of identity.

“The craft beer industry is one of the things that makes Illinois a great place to visit,” Stout said.