Georgia brewery plans to close, says ‘prohibition-era’ law is holding them back

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A Sandy Springs brewery is preparing to close its doors and they say it’s because a “prohibition-era” law is holding them back.

Pontoon Brewing can’t sell its product directly to retailers like bars, restaurants, or stores. Instead, they have to go through a distributor.

The owner said that in a business with very thin margins, the distributor’s slice of the profit makes things tough to stay open.

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“Right now, a brewer like me cannot sell their product directly to a local bar just down the street,” Pontoon Brewing CEO Sean O’Keefe said. “We are always very transparent that the margins in craft beer are thin.”

But he says Georgia’s three-tiered system makes those margins thinner.

It was designed after prohibition to regulate the market by requiring brewers to sell to wholesalers who sell to retailers, even if the final stop is a bar across the street.

The Georgia Beer Wholesaler Association says the system works and that changing the rules “undermines a system that has safeguards to protect our youth, provides a consistent revenue stream to state and local government.

Despite growing every year, a legal battle between Pontoon and its out-of-state distributor has made things even worse for the brewery.

“After the 28th, our doors will be closed at least semi-permanently,” O’Keefe said.

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In the days leading up to the planned closure, he was the only employee working.

“It’s real money, and it would change our business,” O’Keefe said.

He hopes it won’t be goodbye for Pontoon Brewing.

There is a legal battle that may allow them to reopen at some point.

As for the system, there is a bill proposed that could allow breweries to distribute within 100 miles, but it did not make it out of committee.

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