Compliance at Festivals in NC: Quality Control Tasting & Attire

Part 4 of our Festival blog series. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Are you compliant? Hopefully, yes. If not, hopefully these rules can help you.

We’ve (mostly the ABC) have broken down compliance issues into four parts: pre-festival/event, staffing at the festival/event, quality control testing, and festival/event attire.

This blog focuses on quality control tasting and festival/event attire.

Quality Control Tasting:

Who can taste the beer at a festival/event?

1. For a brewery participating with a Special One-Time Permit, the Nonprofit Volunteer Server CANNOT taste the beer for quality control purposes. Tastings can be performed by
   1. Brewery Representative and/or
   2. People who are provided by the nonprofit organization and clearly identified as “quality control assistants.”
2. For a brewery participating with a Malt Beverage Special Event Permit, all brewery employees CANNOT taste the beer for quality control.
   1. Please note that a brewery employee CAN set-up the booth, taste the beer for quality control, change kegs, and dismantle the booth if that employee does not actually work at the booth or participate in the sale of alcohol.

Event Attire:

What you wear matters! And, I’m not talking about your fashion style.

1. For a brewery participating with a Special One-Time Permit, the Nonprofit Volunteer Server CANNOT wear branded brewery attire. The Brewery Representative can.
   1. Everyone’s position needs to be clearly labeled and marked so that there is no confusion to patrons and most importantly to the ALE. The ABC recommends all people at your booth wear nametags that identify them as servers or volunteers. “Quality control assistants” also need to be clearly identified.
2. For a brewery operating under a Malt Beverage Special Event Permit, the brewery employees can wear branded brewery attire.

The information for this blog post can be found on the NC ABC website and the Beer Festival Guidelines.

Contact us!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me at john@beerlawcenter.com or call 919-335-5291.

Be sure to check out Beer Law Center and Matheson Law Office for all things NC legal.

Contact the NC ABC Commission

400 East Tryon Road

Raleigh, NC 27610

919-779-0700

NC ABC