Regulations - Pre-Prohibition

When Prohibition was repealed with the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, a three-tier system was established to eliminate the direct link between the brewers and the retailers and to ensure local control of the distribution process.

This system has five primary goals:

1. To avoid the overly aggressive marketing and sales practices of the pre-Prohibition era;
2. To generate tax revenues that can be collected efficiently from the industry;
3. To facilitate state and local control;
4. To encourage moderate consumption; and
5. To provide choices for the consumer.

Today's wholesalers operate under numerous federal, state and local regulations concerning when, where, to whom and how their products are sold. In fact, few American industries are more highly regulated than the beer industry.