Paying Less For Beer In CT: Here's Why, When It Takes Effect

CONNECTICUT — In a couple of years, it will cost Connecticut residents less to pour a pint at their local pub.

The break will come from a 16.7 percent tax reduction that was part of the newly enacted state budget the governor signed into law last month. The tax reduction on beer is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2023.

Lamont highlighted the tax break Wednesday at a news conference held in the Thomas Hooker Brewery in Bloomfield.

Mark Boughton, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, explained that state's excise tax on beer will drop from 23 to 19 cents per gallon, making it competitive with Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Current tax on a 31-gallon barrel of beer is $7.20; that will drop to $6.00 in July of 2023. The taxes on a gallon of wine will drop 4 cents, to $0.20.

The state anticipates a $2 million revenue loss from the tax decrease.

Taxes are the single most expensive ingredient in beer, costing more than the labor and raw materials combined, according to the Beer Institute.

A report released in May that was conducted by the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Beer Institute found that beer brewed in Connecticut yields $2.9 billion in economic output for the state and supports 17,892 jobs with professions ranging from careers in agriculture, manufacturing, and retail. There are currently more than 120 operational breweries in Connecticut.

"We should be doing everything we can to support locally-owned small businesses, including craft breweries. This reduction in taxes is another way we can support them," Lamont said.

This tax reduction comes on top of a package of reforms that Lamont signed into law in 2019 that were designed to support growth in the craft brewery industry. That package updated increased the amount of beer that breweries could sell for off-premise consumption, and streamlined the permitting process.

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