Brewery Supports Fight Against Unjust NJ License Rules In Long Valley Area

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Breweries across New Jersey have banded together to fight New Jersey's rules for brewery licenses, which have resulted in tight restrictions on New Jersey's craft breweries.

Man Skirt Brewing in Hackettstown is one of the many breweries that has collaborated with the Brewers Guild of New Jersey to serve a craft beer-turned-collaborative project to support efforts to loosen restrictions on New Jersey's craft breweries.

The collaboration, spearheaded by the Brewers Guild of New Jersey, asks each participating brewery to pledge a percentage of their Brew Jersey profits to the Brewers Guild of New Jersey to help fund the fight.

According to the group, 42 breweries in five states have committed to brewing their own batch and donating a portion of the proceeds, including those in North Carolina, Vermont and New York.

The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued a special ruling in May 2019 outlining the restrictions on New Jersey's craft breweries, but enforcement was delayed until July 2022.

Businesses are limited to 25 on-site events and 52 private parties per year under the special rule. Each company may attend up to 12 off-site events. Breweries could hold an unlimited number of events prior to the ruling.

In April, Washington Township Mayor Matthew Murello joined Gov. Phil Murphy's efforts to overhaul the state's liquor laws and phase out the license cap, joining a number of restaurant owners, breweries, and chefs in calling for industry reform.

The state-imposed restrictions have put New Jersey's thriving microbrewery scene in a bind.

“The present system favors the economically advantaged while hampering mom-and-pop businesses and towns with smaller populations,” said the mayors’ coalition in an open letter.

To support the fight, each brewery that produces Brew Jersey is asked to donate a quarter of the proceeds from their version to the Brewers Guild of New Jersey.

According to the group, Man Skirt Brewing will begin selling Brew Jersey sometime in the near future.

Each Brew Jersey can label will include a QR code that will take consumers to the project's website, which will explain the craft breweries' perspective and provide release dates for all breweries producing Brew Jersey.

"It’s clear that these rules, supposedly meant to 'balance interests', are not balanced at all," the guild says on the Brew Jersey website. "New Jersey’s craft beer industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, only to see it now systematically stifled by artificial and arbitrary limits."