BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 779
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Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 779 (Bocanegra) - As Amended: March 19, 2013
Policy Committee: Governmental
Organization Vote: 16 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes a licensed beer manufacturer that produces
more than 60,000 barrels of beer per year to manufacture cider
or perry at the licensed premises of production and to sell
cider or perry to any licensee authorized to sell wine.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Increased workload costs for the Department of Alcoholic
Beverage Control should be minor and absorbable within
existing resources.
2)Negligible non-reimbursable costs for prosecution and/or
incarceration, offset by fine revenue, for misdemeanor
violations of these provisions of the Alcoholic Beverage and
Control Act.
COMMENTS
3)Rationale . According to the author, cider makes up only a very
small portion of US alcohol sales and therefore has the room
and potential for rapid growth. The author asserts that hard
cider makes up less than 1% of U.S. alcoholic beverage sales
but is the nation's fastest-growing beverage category.
In California, existing law establishes a number of licensure
categories for alcohol beverage manufacturers. Breweries, for
example, must possess a Type 01(Beer Manufacturer) license for
the production of beer while wine producers must possess a
Type 02 (Wine Manufacturer) license. The production of hard
cider and perry is considered a wine manufacturing and
AB 779
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therefore requires a Type 02 license. In some cases, a beer
manufacturer has the capacity to produce more than one type of
beverage. A brewery, for example, has the technology and
workforce to produce both beer and cider. But existing law
limits that manufacturer to only one type of beverage per
manufacturing site.
The author states this bill would simplify the licensure process
for alcohol beverage manufacturers who can produce more than
one beverage type by allowing the holder of a Type 01 license
to produce both cider and perry.
4)What is Perry ? Perry, or pear cider, is an alcoholic drink
similar to apple cider but made from pressed pears, especially
grown for this purpose. Traditional perry-making is similar
to traditional cider-making, in that the fruit is picked,
crushed, and pressed to extract the juice, which is then
fermented using the wild yeasts found on the fruit's skin.
Perry pears often have higher levels of sugar than cider apples,
including unfermentable sugars such as sorbitol, which can
give the finished drink a residual sweetness. They also have
different tannin content to cider apples, with a predominance
of astringent over bitter flavors.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081