It's undeniable that we are living in the golden age of craft beers. From large cities to small towns, restaurants and breweries are popping up in our neighborhoods and delighting beer drinkers with their crafty concoctions. However, the path to getting that liquor license approved, so we can enjoy these brewed pleasures, is littered with potential pitfalls. This can be particularly problematic if there are no available liquor licenses in the municipality in question. For those lawyers who have never dealt with liquor license transfers, it can come as a shock that there are quotas in Pennsylvania regarding the amount of liquor licenses available by county and municipality.

Pennsylvania's Liquor Code (47 Pa.C.S.A. Section 4-461(a)) places a restriction on the number of available county liquor licenses, specifically restaurant licenses (R) and eat place licenses (E), at one per three thousand residents. Therefore, each county has a certain specified number of liquor licenses that are available.

Due to earlier, more generous quotas, most counties actually have more licenses than would be permitted under the current more restrictive quota system. This usually means that the only means of acquiring one of these licenses is by purchasing the relevant license from another person or entity who holds the type of license your client is attempting to use. There are of course a few other means by which a person or entity could acquire a relevant liquor license in Pennsylvania, including for a brewery and brew pub, but that's an entirely separate article.