After a two-year political and public relations battle, Florida’s craft beer fans may soon be able to leave their local brewery with the preferred half-gallon refillable jug of the microbrew they love and retire their “Free the growler” T-shirts.
The Florida Legislature appears poised to pass a bill that would legalize 64-ounce refillable beer jugs or “growlers,” which are legal in every other state. Florida already allows quart and gallon growlers, but the popular half-gallon became a pawn in a battle over the complex laws regulating brewing and sale of beer. Politically powerful distributors of Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser, effectively blocked legislation legalizing growlers as they sought to preserve the legal structure on which their business is built.
