Beer Infinity Beer, Brewing & Beyond
| Late last week, the Massachusetts liquor regulatory agency issued an extremely important ruling about one of the state’s distributors.
[The distributor] Craft Brewers Guild spent “approximately $120,000 to pay kickbacks to 12 retail licensees throughout the Boston area, and went to great lengths to hide its knowingly unlawful conduct,” the commission wrote in a written ruling.
The practice of paying pubs for tap handles is as old as the distribution system*, and if you scratch the surface in any market, you’ll hear rumors of this happening. The Massachusetts case was precipitated by public complaints of Pretty Things–the beloved and now defunct little Boston gypsy brewery–who accused the distributor of taking bribes to supply beer at certain pubs. (More here on that story if you’re interested.) Every system has points vulnerable to corruption, and in beer, its at the distributor level. About 18 months ago, I did some (gasp!) actual reporting on this. A brewery sales rep confirmed i … |
Source: Beervana
Read the full article here.
