Fighting Pennsylvania’s unfair restrictions on out-of-state craft breweries

Like many craft breweries, Cincinnati, Ohio-based Urban Artifact began as a hobby. Scotty Hunter and his friend were looking for something different than what their peers at Ohio University were drinking. They created their own craft beer and started a campus home brew club to feature their creations, eventually developing a niche line of unique, real-fruit-infused beer. 

In 2015 they opened the doors to their own brewery: Urban Artifact, which has since become the “largest dedicated fruit brewery in the world” by constantly innovating new ways to combine fruit and beer. The entrepreneurial brewers have created more than 100 different beers so far and use more than one million pounds of fruit each year in their beer creations.  

The company would like to expand its operations by tapping into Pennsylvania’s craft beer market. The state, which borders Ohio, boasts the third-most craft breweries in the nation and is second in annual barrel production. However, instead of embracing entrepreneurship and economic growth, Pennsylvania has a “steel curtain” of laws that kneecap out-of-state breweries from fairly competing in the Keystone State. 

While the state allows its own breweries to ship beer directly to Pennsylvanians without additional licensing or limits on quantity and volume, out-of-state breweries face a host of discriminatory regulations. These include a 90-ounce monthly limit per consumer, a limit of 96 ounces per brand for a specific consumer in a year, and a requirement to obtain a retail or wholesaler license from the brewery’s home state.  

Urban Artifact was able to secure a direct beer shipping license from Pennsylvania in 2021 but let it expire in December 2021 when it became clear that the quantity restrictions would render a direct-to-consumer business cost-prohibitive.  

It is unjust to subject hardworking entrepreneurs to additional, burdensome regulations that limit the same market access and economic opportunity enjoyed by their in-state counterparts simply because of their geographic location. 

Such discriminatory treatment of out-of-state breweries is also blatantly unconstitutional. By unfairly favoring in-state breweries and fomenting protectionism—while serving no legitimate health or safety goals—Pennsylvania’s beer-shipping restrictions violate the Constitution’s dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from interfering with interstate trade.  

Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Urban Artifact is challenging Pennsylvania’s unjust beer shipping restrictions that discriminate in favor of in-state breweries and burdens those located out –of state.