Montgomery County Greenlights New Policy To Encourage More Craft Distilleries

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 6, 2016

   County Executive Isiah Leggett and Councilmember Hans Riemer today announced a new County policy to encourage the location of emerging and growing craft distilleries.

 

The policy, based on the recently adopted Zoning Rewrite, allows the annual production of up to 50,000 gallons of distilled liquor in certain commercial/residential mixed-use zones. For companies that grow or are at greater levels of production, of between 50,000 and 100,000 gallons of distilled liquor will be allowed in light industrial zones. More than 100,000 gallons of distilled liquor are allowed in heavy manufacturing zones.

 

“Applying the new artisan zone to distilleries makes clear to artisans, craftspeople and small businesses that Montgomery County welcomes and supports their spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship and has the places for them to locate, create, market and grow,” said County Executive Leggett. “County residents spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on beer, wine and spirits and this will help encourage ‘home-grown’ products.”

 

“Since joining the Council, I have worked to strengthen our ability to offer an urban lifestyle,” said Councilmember Riemer. “We need to create communities where younger workers and families as well as empty nesters want to be. When the creative, high-value workforce wants to live in a community, the companies and jobs follow. Breweries have been adding new life to many communities in Montgomery County, and we hope to build on that by clearing hurdles for distilleries.”

 

Leggett and Riemer worked together to create the Night Time Economy Task Force in 2013, which recommended a policy of self-distribution for breweries, as proposed by the Department of Liquor Control. The subsequent state legislative change resulted in a significant number of breweries launching in the County over the past few years, leading one successful entrepreneur in the brewery sector to call Montgomery County “the best place in the DMV” to start a brewery. New breweries in the County include Denizens, Seven Locks, Waredaca, and Brookville Beer Farm, joining Gordon Biersch, Growlers, and Rock Bottom.

 

Distilleries, like breweries and wineries, are manufacturing businesses and retailers. They are part of the innovation economy culture that is taking root in Montgomery County. Communities with locally produced beverages benefit from both a vibrant social scene for residents and export-based jobs, as breweries and distilleries sell their spirits to consumers around the country and globally. Breweries are sprouting because of new laws allowing them to sell directly to restaurants without going through a distributor, as well as supportive financing from the State and County. State law regarding self-distribution has also been applied to distillers, clearing a separate hurdle to innovation and entrepreneurship.

 

At the request of Councilmember Riemer, the new policy was crafted by the County’s Department of Permitting Services, in close cooperation with Montgomery County Park & Planning.

 

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Release ID: 16-439
Media Contact: Patrick Lacefield 240-777-6507