The state of Wisconsin is known for two things, our dairy and our beer. Even the state’s baseball team is called the Brewers. Craft brewers throughout the state have recently been under fire because of the recent state budget bill that has passed which included motion 414. This law ends the ability for micro-brewers to sell their beer directly to retailers. The new law is designed to keep MillerCoors competitive with Anheiser-Busch/In-Bev. This act will help major beer companies in Wisconsin at the unfair expense of micro-brewers who now will be forced to pay a 3rd party to sell their product.
Beer making in Wisconsin took off when migrant Germans settled in Wisconsin during the 1830s (Kasparek, Malone, and Schock N.P.).By the later part of the century, most cities throughout the state had at least one brewery. One of those brewers was Frederick Miller who founded the Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee in 1855 (MillerCoors.com).The brewery provided jobs, bought goods from local farmers, often hosted festivals, and sponsored local youth groups, and baseball teams. Today, there are not nearly as many breweries as there was a century ago and the smaller brewers that currently exist are under attack by this new law. For example if a small brewer, like Frederick Miller, was in today’s current environment he would not have been able to create jobs, agricultural trade, tourism destinations and many other great things.
In more recent history, SABMiller merged with Coors, in 2008, to become MillerCoors is the second largest brewing company in revenue behind their main competitor Anheuser-Busch (MSNBC.com). There is limited other competition in the field if you do not include In-Bev/Anhueser-Bucsh. The only exception is small micro-brew...
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