Alaska ‘bar wars’ resurface with arrival of new alcohol laws

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – New Alaska alcohol laws are going into effect New Year’s Day, creating what some say will be a more level playing field between bars and brewery tasting rooms.

The new laws going into effect were part of Senate Bill 9 which was passed in 2022, and intended to end the so-called “bar wars,” or the alcohol industry’s internal conflict between bars and breweries over how state laws were putting one side at a competitive disadvantage.

Odd Man Rush Brewing owner Reid McDonald said part of his frustration is that taprooms – the space in which a brewery serves its beer to customers – still cannot have TVs or stools at the bar. In addition, breweries must limit customers’ consumption to three 12-ounce beers per person.

“This is a good start, giving breweries a little more time, an extra hour a day, but [the laws] don’t go far enough,” McDonald said. “They need to erase all that stuff. I mean, the three-beer limit can get off the table, you should be able to have live music and TVs.”

Fellow Odd Man Rush Brewing owner/partner Russ Johnson said the beer limits used to put his Eagle River business at odds with its customers.

“A lot of people knew the rules that they were allowed to have 36 ounces of beer, but there’s a lot of people that didn’t,” Johnson said. “And so there were people that would get angry, and they would actually walk out and leave and go somewhere else.”

But there is a positive side. Under the new regulations, taprooms can now hold a limited number of live events each year, and stay open until 9 p.m., rather than 8 p.m.

“We were in that situation for many, many years … where you have a packed house and you got to call last call at, you know, 7:45 p.m. So that extra hour gives extra revenue,” McDonald said.

Looking at it from the bar perspective, John “J.D.” Dave, bar manager of the Time Out Lounge in Anchorage, said a beverage dispensary license can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to $1,500 for a brewery license.

In addition, Dave argued that the limits placed on breweries are all part of the deal for opening that kind of operation.

“They know what they bought in to. They know what they signed up for,” Dave wrote in an emailed statement. “Businesses always should look to evolve with the times, in order to optimize their profit potential. I fully understand this. Senate Bill 9 was pushed to be able to increase the profit window for SOME of the alcohol industry, but not all. Bars will see little to no change as they idly stand by and watch the landscape of their industry change, with no options available to them, to maximize potential as others now can.”

McDonald countered and said opening breweries also includes investments that do not affect their counterpart in the alcohol industry.

“We’ve got plenty of stainless steel, that’s not cheap. So … just in stainless steel in our brewhouse is worth a liquor license,” said McDonald, saying the brewing equipment cost at least $500,000.

But in the end, McDonald said he went to the “dark side” and purchased a beverage dispensary license, because even under the new laws, as a brewery, he was leaving too much money on the table.

“I didn’t see it changing in my lifetime. And it’s taken so long just to get that extra hour. I mean, we’ve been at it for eight years and it just changed,” he said. “So that’s why we did what we did. And it’s been great for us. Unfortunately, we had to spend that kind of money to do it. But now we’re competing with other bars and restaurants.”

Also part of the new state laws is a provision that puts new limits on the number of new taprooms that can operate in a town or a city, intended to address public safety and alcohol abuse.

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