LagerandtheLawTranscript.fixed2.docx
A Minnesota craft brewer challenges state law and wins in order to expand his business.
Keywords
Entrepreneur, Business, Beer, Local, Lager, Change, Legislation, Surly Brewing, Brew, Alcohol, Social Networking, Facebook, Marketing, Lawmaker, Legal, State, Politics, Political, Brewery, Lobbyist, Publicity, Publicist, Laws, Small, Message, Jobs, Employment, Company, Minnesota, Bill, Growth, Legislator, Tap Room
Citation
MLA
"Lager and the Law." JJ Ramberg, correspondent. . NBCUniversal Media. 10 June 2012. NBC Learn. Web. 26 August 2015.
APA
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Lager and the Law" , New York, NY: NBC Universal, 06/10/2012. Accessed Wed Aug 26 2015 from NBC Learn: To locate this video, access NBC Learn through Blackboard and search for the video by title.
Transcript
Lager and the Law
OMAR ANSARI: And there was a pretty small change but it’s still a little piece of legislation that made a big difference for us. It’s good for the state, it’s good for business. It’s good for Minnesotans, why wouldn’t we want to do it.
JJ RAMBERG, reporting:
Omar Ansari, the founder of Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, already has plans in mind for expanding his business.
ANSARI: We never thought we'd experience this type of success. It’s been fantastic. The first year, 2006, we sold sixteen hundred kegs of beer; and this year, we’re on pace to probably sell around forty thousand kegs of beer.
RAMBERG: Surly’s beer is so popular that there’s a waiting list for new customers. With so much demand, Omar had to focus on increasing his supply.
ANSARI: We can’t make enough beer here so we’re going to have to either decide pretty much cap our growth here at this building or build a new facility.
RAMBERG: He decided to open a second location, simple, right? Well, not in this case. Because of this decision, Omar had to become the driving force behind a change in state law.
ANSARI: Minnesota is one of those states where you could not sell someone a glass of beer at a production brewery.
RAMBERG: In other words, Surly could sell its beer in bars, restaurants, and liquor stores but that was about it.
ANSARI: When someone comes in for a tour, we give them beer, that’s all free. So it’s not legal for us to charge them for that glass of beer. In some states, you can do that. In some states you can’t.
RAMBERG: The second brewery Omar wants to build would have a restaurant and a bar. He wants to sell his own product and that’s what put him on a collision course with the law.
ANSARI: If we can somehow manage to change this law, the breweries could sell a glass of beer. Then we’re not just building a bigger brewery, we’re building sort of a destination.
RAMBERG: With a political battle brewing, Omar recruited a team to take his issue to the Capitol.
CLINT ROBERT: He said I want to change the law. Because I want to build a brewery that’s unlike anything else we have in Minnesota. And I said sounds good, where do I sign on.
RAMBERG: Omar hired lobbyists and enlisted the expertise of publicist Clint Roberts of the company One Simple Plan.
ROBERT: And I kind of realized what exactly he wanted to do and realized it was a seventy-eight-year-old Prohibition-era law and said, well, this is going to take some-- this isn’t going to happen in two weeks. This is going to have to be something that when we map it out we have to stay relevant for months to even have a fighting chance. And even with that who knows? But let’s go for it.
RAMBERG: Despite some support, Omar felt some resistance from the start.
ANSARI: There are a lot of people that didn’t want to see that change happen just that’s the way politics works. Usually when the laws are there, there’s someone that wants to keep them that way.
RAMBERG: That’s why he had to prove that his campaign wasn’t just about selling pints of beer.
ROBERT: We made it more about small business, big idea, free market. This guy wants to grow his business, why is anybody standing in his way, let alone the government?
RAMBERG: Omar argued that Surly wouldn’t be the only brewery to benefit. His message was focused. Hundreds of jobs could be created with a minor legal change.
ANSARI: And it kind of became a jobs bill that we have a lot of opportunities to do some stuff here and let’s do it here as opposed to another state. This is about jobs.
RAMBERG: State Representative Jenifer Loon was one of the sponsors of the Surly Bill. She believed it was an opportunity to give the local economy a boost.
REP. JENIFER LOON: What he was seeking was a very minor change, in my opinion to kind of our liquor statutes in the State of Minnesota. And that’s one of the reasons I came to the legislature was to try to break down some of those barriers and cut that red tape.
RAMBERG: Representative Loon says the law puts small businesses at a disadvantage.
REP. LOON: That’s how most businesses start. It’s somebody and an idea and we need to make sure we’re not putting roadblocks on their way. Aren’t we here to provide opportunities and create jobs?
RAMBERG: When Surly’s appeal appeared to fall on deaf ears, Omar and his team took their plight public.
ROBERT: The fight had to be taken outside of the Capitol doors and really the people are going to have to kind of help us out and support us.
RAMBERG: Fans of Surly Brewing, better known as Surly Nation, were mobilized and they quickly took action.
ANSARI: We said please contact your legislators because they’ve been waiting, they're like what can we do? We finally said, all right, call them, e-mail them, tell your friends, tell your family, please, if you want to see this bill passed. We need your help.
RAMBERG: Facebook and Twitter turned into base camps of information for Surly supporters as the Surly team spent hours making its case.
ROBERT: And it was a way to rally our troops but also bring everybody together and say here’s what they are saying, here’s what that means to this project and here’s what we all need to know for our next step.
RAMBERG: The support from Surly Nation never wavered. Lawmakers got a constant stream of e-mails and phone calls.
ROBERT: People started to take more seriously Surly Nation and how much of a hot-button issue this was. It was about small business, it was about beer, and it was about the evolution of a company.
RAMBERG: Legislators took notice and a process that can take years turned into just months with overwhelming support in the Minnesota House and Senate the Surly Bill became law in May 2011. The result--
ANSARI: Breweries like ourselves can now get a tap room license and what that means is we can sell beer that we make here at this facility. We can sell that beer in a tap room, so only our own beer. It’s just glasses of beer.
RAMBERG: With the win in the Surly column, the company is finalizing plans for expansion. Omar says the fight was worth it because the bill has opened the door to growth for everyone.
ANSARI: One of the reasons is it’s really hard to open a brewery. There-- it takes a tremendous amount of cash. You could see all the equipment you’ve got to get. So just being able to sell someone some pints of beer is a huge advantage. So we’re going to see a lot of other breweries I think open up now with this law changing and it’s going to make the beer scene here a better and better place.
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