Today brewers from across the state, including a strong contingency from Seattle, are descending upon Olympia to rally against a proposal from Governor Inslee to make permanent a temporary beer tax. The 50-cents-a-gallon tax was set to expire this summer; Inslee wants to keep it around to help cover education funding. 

Here’s the kicker: Until now, this tax exempted microbreweries, aka those producing fewer than 60,000 barrels a year.  The proposal would apply the tax to all beer sales (not production). 

According to Washington Beer Blog (which has been covering the hell out of this issue), that exemption meant Redhook was the only in-state brewery paying this tax; the rest of the money came from large out-of-state companies selling their beer here.

Doing the math, the tax amounts to an extra $15.50 per barrel of beer; according to Georgetown Brewing cofounder Roger Bialous, the current tax rate for small brewers is $4.78 per barrel. Pike Brewing recently told KOMO that a six pack of pale ale would jump from $9 to $12. Another possible outcome: More of our beer would be sold in Oregon, where the per-barrel tax rate a comical $2.60 according to numbers floating around among local brewers.

As you might imagine, local brewers are up in arms about the difficulty of a small enterprise absorbing this sharp tax increase, making the case that they create jobs, drive revenue, and purchase Washington-grown ingredients for many of their brews. Legislative reps from Ballard are likely getting a particular earful, since the neighborhood is home to so many fledgling breweries.