Why South Carolina's 'beer tasting' bill is stalled (update: un-stalled!)

Update May 18th (Timmons Pettigrew): This just in from the @COASTBrewing Twitter (the unofficial newswire for this whole ordeal): Senator Leventis has removed his objection!  The bill is on today's Senate agenda, and the session should be cranking up around 1 p.m.  If you're as jazzed up about this as I am, you can watch streaming video of the session here.

Anyone of you (us) that contacted the Senator supporting this bill should be patting yourselves (myself) on the back right now.

First reporting

While Bill 3693 that allows for tasting at breweries marches on, Bill 4572 that expands beer tasting to retail stores has stalled out due to so-called philosophical opposition by Lee and Sumter county Senator Phil P. Leventis.

We have a request in for a comment on his position but are waiting to hear back.

Until then, I wanted to flush out some of the thoughts that have been floating around regarding the matter. Leventis' family business is the Dixie-Central Distributing Company and is associated with Guinness USA, LLC, Molson Coors Brewing Co., and Pabst Brewing Co.

You can contact the senator at (803) 212-6000, philleventis@scsenate.gov, or via his page at the State House website.