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Marquette Mining Journal: Beer tour

MARQUETTE - U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, learned about the beer brewing process and highlighted legislation he has co-sponsored while touring Blackrocks Brewery in Marquette Monday afternoon.

"This is a great industry for Michigan like we see here in Marquette, this (Blackrocks Brewery) is a business that hires people, puts folks to work and it also adds to tourism," Peters said.

If approved, the Small BREW Act Peters co-sponsored would reduce excise taxes for small breweries. The legislation would reduce the tax rate per barrel from $7 to $3.50 for the first 60,000 barrels a brewery produces, with another $2 on additional barrels produced up to 2 million barrels.

"We're really excited to meet Senator Peters, because I know he's strongly supporting some legislation that will have some strong impact for every brewery around Michigan, that would help decrease the amount of excise tax ... (on) each barrel we produce," said David Manson, co-founder of Blackrocks Brewery.

"We were looking into ... what effect this would have on a brewery our size, and throughout the year it would definitely accumulate to the point where we saved enough to add some crucial pieces of equipment that would allow us to grow, and with growth comes hiring more people," Blackrocks Brewery co-founder Andy Langlois said.