Could Prohibition Still Be Slowing the Craft Beer Boom?

Michelle Minton is a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington, D.C.

This week marks the sixth year bars, brewers, distributors and other beer enthusiasts will come together to celebrate the beer community in our nation’s capital. One of the educational events, which was held last night, was a “drinking seminar” on How Government Affects Your Beer. From taxes, which make up about half the cost of a beer, to the one man in the Treasury Department who approves every beer label, to the laws that dictate how brewers can sell their beer, rules and regulations have a huge impact on the cost, availability, and variety of beer in the market—something that should be of interest to any maker or lover of craft beer.

While there’s no doubt that we are living in the “golden age” for craft beer in America (soon we’ll have around 3,000 brewers, the most since the end of Prohibition in 1933), but there are still anti-competitive laws and regulatory schemes,