(Courtesy Triangle Business Journal) 

North Carolina has the ninth highest excise tax on beer, at $0.62 a gallon, and the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild aims to take on the challenge of lowering it this year.

With 31 gallons of beer per barrel, each barrel sold in the state by craft brewers is taxed $19.22.

Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild, says states that have the lowest excise taxes, such as California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado, are home to the largest craft beer industries.

“Most folks can see that the craft beer industry is good for N.C. It brings revenue, jobs and tourism to our state,” says Metzger. “We can keep that momentum going by taking some of the undue tax burden off small brewers who could be using that money to hire workers and reinvest in their business.”

Metzger says the guild also supports the lowering of the beer excise tax on a federal level. This year, the guild also hopes to eliminate the state’s 25,000-barrel self-distribution limit.

The main purpose of the guild is to promote N.C. as the state of Southern beer, according to Metzger, and to position N.C. as one of the best craft beer states in the nation.

The top 10 states with the highest beer excise tax per gallon, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. Tax Foundation:

1.Tennessee: $1.17

2. Alaska: $1.07

3. Alabama: $1.05

4. Georgia: $1.01

5. Hawaii: $0.93

6. South Carolina: $0.77

7. Kentucky: $0.76

8. Washington: $0.76

9. North Carolina: $0.62

10. Minnesota: $0.48