---
type: "Bill"
title: "Malt Beverages; provide for limited sale at retail by manufacturers"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 3 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to malt beverages, so as to provide for the limited sale of malt beverages at retail by manufacturers of malt beverages; to provide for a definition; to provide for the promulgation of rules and regulations by the state revenue commissioner; to provide for certain powers of the state revenue commissioner; to clarify that sales of malt beverages by brewpubs for consumption off the premises are governed by the local jurisdiction; to provide for remittance of local excise taxes by brewers; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "SB 85"
citation: "Georgia SB 85 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Cowsert", "Chuck Hufstetler", "Frank Ginn", "Hunter Hill", "John Albers", "Lawrence Walker III", "Matt Brass", "P. K. Martin IV", "Rick Jeffares", "Steve Gooch"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-01-26"
last_action: "2017-05-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/384d5b66-16c4-41e4-aee6-c6e6b1508db2"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "4102b0e3567e35a845e4c0a958d55b457e4041e3fe25c00dd1566decb947ae61"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 85 (2017_18) — Malt Beverages; provide for limited sale at retail by manufacturers

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 3 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to malt beverages, so as to provide for the limited sale of malt beverages at retail by manufacturers of malt beverages; to provide for a definition; to provide for the promulgation of rules and regulations by the state revenue commissioner; to provide for certain powers of the state revenue commissioner; to clarify that sales of malt beverages by brewpubs for consumption off the premises are governed by the local jurisdiction; to provide for remittance of local excise taxes by brewers; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **49–2** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bill Cowsert — primary (person)
- Chuck Hufstetler — primary (person)
- Frank Ginn — primary (person)
- Hunter Hill — primary (person)
- John Albers — primary (person)
- Lawrence Walker III — primary (person)
- Matt Brass — primary (person)
- P. K. Martin IV — primary (person)
- Rick Jeffares — primary (person)
- Steve Gooch — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-26** Senate Hopper
- **2017-01-30** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-31** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-01** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-02** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-02-02** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-02-07** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-02-14** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-13** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-13** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-22** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2017-04-03** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-08** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-08** Act 178 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/384d5b66-16c4-41e4-aee6-c6e6b1508db2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).