In Nashville this week, Tennessee lawmakers advanced companion bills in their first House and Senate committees that would give brewers an excise tax credit for donating spent grain byproduct to agricultural interests within 100 miles of the brewery. The credit would be assessed on an $.08 per dry weight pound basis, with a cap on the effort of either $30,000 per year, or the total of that brewery’s state excise tax obligation. Some brewers could see their state excise tax completely erased, keeping hard-earned money in their pockets.

This effort, kicked off by the Brewers Association’s Brews to Barns initiative, has been labeled “Ferment to Feed” in the Volunteer State. It has received unanimous, bipartisan support from the House Government Operations Committee and the Senate State and Local Government Committee.

House Bill 1901 will be heard in the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on April 1. Senate Bill 2339 will likewise head to the Finance, Ways and Means Committee, but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Learn more about the Brews to Barns efforts across the country.