Beer makers fight effort to void quality control rules

By The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY - Beer makers clashed with beer wholesalers Friday over which group should be responsible for preserving the freshness of strong beer.

Brewers are demanding that wholesalers help with quality control of their product, while some wholesalers say that's not their job.

Three beer wholesalers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa asked the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission to amend state quality control guidelines for strong beer with an alcohol content of more than 3.2 percent by weight. State law requires that strong beer be sold only in retail liquor stores regulated by the ABLE commission.

Beer makers and suppliers said it is important that wholesalers rotate and refrigerate beer because state law prohibits retail liquor stores from refrigerating beer and many do not rotate their bottled beer supplies.

"We'd love to have our products cold in the liquor store," said Brett Robinson, president of the Oklahoma Malt Beverage Association. But state lawmakers have not authorized it, he said.

Tim Zaloudek, a beer distributor in Enid, presented a bottle of imported beer to commission members that he said he recently paid a retail liquor store $4.75 for although it had an expiration date of December 2006.

"There's no protection for the consumer," he said.

Liquor guidelines acknowledge that beer makers have an interest in keeping their products fresh through such steps as refrigeration, rotation of bottled beer stocks and the cleaning of tap lines attached to kegs of draft beer.

But attorneys for the wholesalers said they are prohibited by law from providing that kind of service to beer suppliers and forcing them to would unfairly shift quality control costs for strong beer to the wholesalers.

Attorney John Jarboe of International Beers in Tulsa said the quality control practices of beer wholesalers should be determined by competition in Oklahoma's beer industry and not the ABLE commission.

"What is at issue here is control," Jarboe said. "It's not something that the Legislature or the board should control."

After more than two hours of testimony, the commission took the issue under advisement until its next meeting on March 21.

Representatives of beer maker Anheuser-Busch, Inc. of St. Louis, the Beer Institute in Washington, D.C., and experts on the beer brewing process testified about the importance of refrigeration and rotation to preserve the freshness of bottled beers and the periodic cleaning of beer tap lines to keep draft beer fresh.

"The draft line is like drinking beer through a straw," said Alistair T. Pringle, senior director of brewing research for Anheuser-Busch. Pringle said draft beer has close contact with the line as it passes from the keg to the beer mug.

Tap lines cost $5 each to clean and should be cleaned every two weeks to rid them of microbes and other impurities that can affect the appearance and taste of beer. But beer experts testified that lines in some Oklahoma establishments have not been cleaned for up to two years.

Bill Glossen of Premium Distributing said his company recently bought back more than $29,000 worth of outdated beer after finding hundreds of kegs and cases of beer that were past their expiration dates in Oklahoma wholesaler warehouses.

"Beer is a perishable product," said Randy Malone of Anheuser-Busch. "We want our customers to know that each time they purchase one of our products, it will taste good."

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