Obamacare is Coming After Your Craft Beer

Katie Pavlich | May 31, 2016 3:30 PM

Listen up Bernie Sanders supporting hipsters: Obamacare is coming for your craft beer.

According to the Brewer's Association, craft brewing contributed $55.7 billion to the U.S. economy and provided more than 440,000 jobs in 2014, a significant impact in a still sluggish economy.

Small and independent American craft brewers contributed $55.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014. The figure is derived from the total impact of beer brewed by craft brewers as it moves through the three-tier system (breweries, wholesalers and retailers), as well as all non-beer products like food and merchandise that brewpub restaurants and brewery taprooms sell.

But a regulation buried in Obamacare could change craft brewing and not for the better. From Americans For Tax Reform:

Amidst Obamacare’s 3,000 pages lies a regulation that may squeeze craft beer brewers out of business. Why would federal healthcare bureaucrats want to meddle in this thriving industry? Well, regulators claim that American consumers are not healthy because they are blissfully unaware of the amount of calories in beer.

As of December 2016, Obamacare dictates that all brewers must include a detailed calorie count on every type of beer they produce. Failure to comply with the new regulations means craft brewers will not be able to sell their beer in any restaurant chain with over 20 locations. Because this is a major market for selling beer, it hamstrings smaller craft brewers if they do not comply.

The Cato Institute estimates the Obamacare calorie labeling requirements will cost a business as much as $77,000 to implement. For larger beer companies, this is a drop in the bucket, but for small, local craft brewers it represents a substantial cost that they must pay. As a result, it creates a significant disadvantage compared to larger beer companies who can better absorb the cost of this new regulation.