Florida Beverage Legislation: 2021 Pre-Session Review of Beverage Bills
The 2021 Session of the Florida Legislature will include consideration of a number of bills affecting breweries, wineries, distilleries, retailers and consumers.
The 2021 regular session of the Florida Legislature kicks off Tuesday, March 2, 2021. This 2-month session will see the consideration of a number of bills (though not as many as in prior years) that could affect the Florida beverage industry as soon as July.
For a refresher on how a bill goes from being introduced to becoming law in Florida, check out the Florida Senate’s Idea-to-Law Flowchart and the Florida League of City’s short video: Florida’s Legislative Process 101.
The following chart provides a summary of this session’s beverage-focused bills. We’ll check back in on the status of these bills at end of the session.
2021 Florida Beverage Bills - Pre-Session
| wdt_ID | NUMBER | TITLE | SUMMARY | FILED BY | LAST ACTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SB 46 | Craft Distilleries | Craft Distilleries; Authorizing craft distilleries to be licensed as specified vendors under certain circumstances; requiring certain alcoholic beverages to be obtained through a licensed distributor; prohibiting a distillery from operating as a craft distillery until certain requirements are met; authorizing persons to have common ownership in craft distilleries under certain circumstances; requiring a minimum percentage of a craft distillery’s total finished branded products to be distilled in this state and contain one or more Florida agricultural products after a specified date, etc. | Hutson | Last Action: 2/18/2021 S Now in Rules |
| 2 | SB 134 | Beverage Law | Beverage Law; Authorizing certain food service establishments to sell or deliver alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption if specified requirements are met; revising provisions that authorize a restaurant to allow patrons to remove partially consumed bottles of wine from a restaurant for off-premises consumption; revising requirements for the sale of alcoholic beverages by certain vendors, etc. | Brandes | Last Action: 12/9/2020 S Referred to Regulated Industries; Commerce and Tourism; Rules |
| 3 | SB 142 | Beverage Law | Beverage Law; Repealing provisions relating to limitations on the size of individual wine containers and the size of individual cider containers; revising provisions that authorize a restaurant to allow patrons to remove partially consumed bottles of wine from the restaurant for off-premises consumption; revising the requirements for the sale of branded products by a licensed distillery or craft distillery to consumers; revising requirements relating to the shipping of distilled spirits to consumers by a craft distillery, etc. | Brandes | Last Action: 12/9/2020 S Referred to Regulated Industries; Commerce and Tourism; Rules |
| 4 | SB 148 | Beverage Law | Beverage Law; Authorizing certain food service establishments to sell or deliver certain alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption under certain circumstances; providing requirements for such establishments to sell alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption; requiring that such alcoholic beverages be transported in a specified manner; specifying that certain alcoholic beverages sold by such establishments are not open containers for the purposes of the prohibition on possessing open containers of alcoholic beverages in vehicles, etc. | Bradley | Last Action: 2/18/2021 S Now in Commerce and Tourism |
| 5 | HB 329 | Alcoholic Beverage Licenses | Alcoholic Beverage Licenses; Authorizes food service establishments to sell or deliver alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption if requirements are met; revises provisions that authorize restaurant to allow patrons to remove partially consumed bottles of wine from restaurant for off-premises consumption; revises requirements for sale of alcoholic beverages by certain vendors. | Tomkow | Last Action: 2/18/2021 H Now in Commerce Committee |
| 6 | HB 385 | Alcoholic Beverage Licenses, Lake and Sumter Counties | Alcoholic Beverage Licenses, Lake and Sumter Counties; Revises criteria for special alcoholic beverage licenses for certain entities operating within Lake & Sumter Counties; revises boundaries. | Hage | Last Action: 2/8/2021 H Now in Local Administration & Veterans Affairs Subcommittee |
| 7 | HB 449 | Sale of Frozen or Mixed Alcoholic Beverages for Off-premises Consumption | Sale of Frozen or Mixed Alcoholic Beverages for Off-premises Consumption; Authorizes certain vendors to sell frozen alcoholic beverages or mixed alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption under certain circumstances. | Overdorf | Last Action: 2/8/2021 H Now in Regulatory Reform Subcommittee |
| 8 | HB 737 | Craft Distilleries | Craft Distilleries; Authorizes craft distilleries to be licensed as specified vendors under certain circumstances; requires certain alcoholic beverages to be obtained through licensed distributor; prohibits distillery from operating as craft distillery until certain requirements are met; authorizes persons to have common ownership in craft distilleries under certain circumstances; requires minimum percentage of craft distillery’s total finished branded products to be distilled in this state & contain one or more Florida agricultural products. | DiCeglie | Last Action: 2/18/2021 H Now in Regulatory Reform Subcommittee |
| 9 | SB 1106 | Sale of Frozen or Mixed Alcoholic Beverages for Off-premises Consumption | Sale of Frozen or Mixed Alcoholic Beverages for Off-premises Consumption; Authorizing certain vendors to sell frozen alcoholic beverages or mixed alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption under certain circumstances, etc. | Rodriguez | Last Action: 2/18/2021 S Referred to Regulated Industries; Commerce and Tourism; Rules |
| 10 | HB 6051 | Tied House Evil | Tied House Evil; Repeals provisions relating to tied house evil. | Sabatini, Andrade | Last Action: 2/8/2021 H Now in Regulatory Reform Subcommittee |
| 11 | HB 6073 | Individual Wine Containers | Individual Wine Containers; Repeals provisions relating to limitation of size of individual wine containers. | LaMarca | Last Action: 2/10/2021 H Filed |
| NUMBER | TITLE | SUMMARY | FILED BY | LAST ACTION |
Do you have questions about how these proposed changes to Florida Beverage Law could affect our business or your plans for a new beverage business? Contact us at contact@brewerlong.com to schedule a consultation.
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