Joel Macleod submerges a case of empty cans into sanitizing solution before filling them with beer at Brato. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
March is finally here, but Massachusetts craft brewers are still struggling to reach the end of this long, cruel, pandemic winter. We reached out to a few brewpubs, tap rooms and breweries to find out how creativity, community and a getting a lot more beer into cans is helping them survive.
Mobile canners State 64 cans Brato Brewhouse’s N. Beacon Light Helles Lager in a tight space inside the brewery. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Our first stop was Brato Brewhouse and Kitchen in Brighton where the clinking, whooshing sounds of aluminum vessels being filled with sudsy beer rang in a momentous day.
New stimulus package permanently extends excise tax regulations saving craft brewers thousands
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
The bill adds even more relief to craft breweries across the country as it relates to the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA).
Current regulations tax $3.50 per barrel of beer on the first 60,000 barrels produced by breweries. The tax jumps to $16 for every barrel beyond 60,000.
The regulation was set to expire on Dec. 31. The stimulus bill permanently extends the regulation.
If it had expired, the cost would jump from $3.50 to $16 regardless of the size of a brewery.
“That’s huge. I can’t even imagine if that actually wasn’t extending and suddenly we had to pay four times as much in federal excise tax,” CEO of Redemption Rock Brewing Co. Dani Babineau said.