Three Tier System

The next time you are in another state and want to buy a microbrew beer that you get at home good luck. If you wonder why, blame it on the three tier system. Since prohibition, each state has set up such a system where breweries can only sell to distributors who then sell to retailers (bars, liquor stores) and then finally to you the consumer. This legal monopoly that distributors have makes it difficult for people who like quality microbrew beer to purchase it. The big distributors worry more about selling their Bud and Coors and often will not carry microbrew brands. I can get Jolly Pumpkin in my hometown in Indiana, but when I cross the river to one of the better beer stores in Louisville, they don't have it. None of the distributors in Kentucky carry it. A free market where brewers and distributors could sell across state lines would solve this problem.