House Speaker Greg Stumbo introduced a bill before the Kentucky legislature that would prevent brewers from directly distributing their products to retailers. House Bill 168 was introduced before the legislature recessed until February 3.

Last year, a Circuit Court judge in Franklin County ruled that no state law prevented Anheuser-Busch from buying an Owensboro-based distributorship to deliver its products to retailers and ordered the State of Kentucky to grant the company a license. Anheuser-Busch has owned a Louisville regional distributorship since 1978.

House Bill 168 appears to require Anheuser-Bush to divest itself of these distributorships; but, it has yet to be determined whether House Bill 168 has enough support for passage. It will be interesting to watch how this battle unfolds in the Kentucky legislature.