Makes various revisions to the laws governing alcoholic beverage licensing.
What changed between versions
The definition of 'coordinate with food vendors' now applies to any 'craft manufacturer's licensee' instead of only a 'limited brewery licensee,' expanding the right to arrange food service at events to include cidery, meadery, and craft distillery license holders.
Farm brewery license holders may now sell products for consumption 'on or off the licensed premises' rather than only 'off the licensed premises,' granting them a new on-premises retail sales privilege.
Off-premises special event license holders may now sell 'chilled and unchilled packaged goods or growlers and crowlers' for off-premises consumption, expanding from only unchilled products to include chilled ones.
The farm brewery ingredient requirement changed from beverages being 'substantially produced from' locally grown hops, grains, or other ingredients to containing 'at least 51 percent of its ingredients from' those sources, providing a clearer and potentially easier-to-meet standard.
A new subsection g. exempts municipalities from the inactive license expiration requirement when they hold an inactive plenary retail consumption license specifically for use in a redevelopment, improvement, or revitalization area.
New language in two sections (4 and 6) states that notwithstanding the Municipal Finance Law, a municipality may obtain a license through capital funding, borrowing, or any other method approved by the Division of Local Government Services, removing a potential legal barrier to municipal license acquisitions.
License holders may now appeal expiration of a transferred license not only due to eminent domain, fire, or other casualty, but also due to 'failure to obtain governmental approval despite a good faith effort to do so,' broadening the grounds for challenging a license lapse.
Multiple references to 'Class C' licenses were replaced with 'plenary retail consumption' licenses throughout the bill for greater specificity and clarity.
References to 'issuing municipality' were changed to 'sending municipality' in several places for consistency with the bill's established terminology, and cross-references were updated to point to the new sections created by this bill rather than the prior P.L.2023, c.290.