Pennsylvania has a rich history in brewed beer. According to the Beer Museum in Pittsburgh, the first brewery in the colony was built on the location of a land grant from William Penn in 1684. Penn himself had a brewery around the same time and gifted barrels of his beer as part of his diplomatic efforts. Over the next several hundred years, the commonwealth became home to tens of thousands of eastern European immigrants who continued the practice. Prohibition halted production for a time, but manufacturing returned and today there are more than 360 breweries operating in the commonwealth.

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue recently announced that Pennsylvania breweries are to begin collecting 6 percent sales tax on direct to consumer beer sales. This is a significant departure from the department’s prior determination that breweries were exempt from collecting and remitting sales tax from direct-to-consumer sales. The change in policy has caused concern among an industry that includes small family-owned operations to sprawling mega breweries, and every size in between. The industry has undergone major changes in the last several years, and brewers of every size have had to navigate the liquor code and accompanying tax regulations.