California craft breweries have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Newsom, claiming that the state’s reopening orders are treating beer producers unfairly.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the plaintiffs, including the California Craft Brewers Association and San Francisco’s Cellarmaker Brewing Co., argue the state has discriminated against them by making guidelines stricter than those for wine manufacturers.
Currently, neither breweries nor wineries can open in the Bay Area and other California regions under stay-at-home orders.
Tom McCormick with the brewers association says his group expects that when current orders are lifted, the state will revert to the color-coded tier reopening system that allows breweries to reopen if they serve full meals.
Wineries initially fell under the same requirement, but pre-existing rules in Napa County prohibit most wineries from serving full meals. So last spring, Napa Valley winemaker Chuck Wagner sued the state and that requirement was later erased, but only for wineries.
McCormick says adding a food operation to a brewery can be an insurmountable cost and argues that wineries and breweries should be treated the same.