Small batch boom

Beer laws limit brewery sales, for now

Sept. 23 brings the official beginning of autumn. Warmer shades of leaves will dance in cooler winds as the sun sets ever earlier and you pretend to look cool in a scarf. The shadow of the equinox looms upon all things, and even the hallowed halls of liquor stores bear its mark with Oktoberfest/Märzen style and other seasonal beers.

With fest-appropriate drinkability and a hint of what’s in the air, medium-bodied Oktoberfests are favorites this time of year. Adventurously flavored, the seasonal beers sometimes traipse into the realm of novelty. Still, a few gems lie in the pumpkin patch. Most breweries offer something of this variety, and many unavailable in local stores will appear Oct. 3 at McNellie’s Harvest Beer Festival, which will include more than 40 national breweries.

Along with the Wild Brew fundraiser and The Hop Jam, the Harvest Beer Festival is just part of Tulsa’s burgeoning brew scene. Dead Armadillo and Kolibri Ale Works will soon join Prairie Artisan Ales and Marshall Brewing Company as brick-and-mortar operations in Tulsa. Tap takeovers from the likes of OKC-based COOP Ale Works and Anthem Brewing Company—and even outsiders like Michigan-based Founders—have become common across town. The boom continues in spite of our state’s objectively stupid liquor laws. 

Oklahoma breweries currently cannot sell beer above 3.2 percent alcohol content (commonly referred to as “three-two beer”) directly to customers. Additionally, any beer above that percentage can’t be sold refrigerated, or outside of liquor stores. Legislation to reform those laws passed in the State House earlier this year and will wait in limbo until next year. 

Of particular interest to local brewers is SB 424, which would allow breweries to bypass distributors and sell “strong” beer directly to customers. Also pending is SB 383, which would allow high alcohol beer to be sold refrigerated in liquor, grocery and convenience stores. 

Year round, Tulsa’s internationally revered Prairie Artisan Ales receives excited tourists chasing the mystique of the brewery’s unique beers and collectible labels. The tourists are often dismayed to learn they can’t buy Prairie’s high alcohol products like Bomb! and Wine Barrel Noir on site. Instead, Prairie and other Okie breweries must craft lower alcohol (and less popular) beers to sell to visitors. Relying on distributors to pick up and push their productS also inherently limits the risks a brewery can take with unconventional small batch beers. 

Though Oktoberfest brews aren’t big in the craft world, the distribution law might explain why Marshall is the only local operation with an Oktoberfest or fall seasonal beer. Prairie Co-owner Chase Healey alluded to this but also said they “just aren’t into making an Oktoberfest.”

For more of Mitch's thoughts on beer, read his fall beer and film pairings.