Small breweries with a niche stylistic focus have undertaken what is likely to be a years-long effort to create more direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping permissions for beer makers, similar to laws that already apply to wine. A victory would mean expanded sales opportunities for breweries and long-term potential to sell to new customers across the country. With a lawsuit filed against the state of Oregon, three Washington State breweries hope to show a courtroom can be more effective than legislators to even the playing field for beer producers.
The current state of affairs for shipping beer direct to consumers (DTC) is not that great. Breweries in the United States can only ship to nine states plus the District of Columbia, which equates to only 17% of the U.S. population. For comparison, U.S. wineries can ship to 47 states and 97% of the U.S. population. Beer DTC is still in a state of infancy, but the good news for breweries is there’s a tremendous amount of untapped opportunity.