CHICAGO — Craft brewers across Illinois are asking state lawmakers for targeted COVID-19 relief funds after they say many local breweries were left out of many early-pandemic grants.
Before the state legislation session closes in Springfield on April 8, lawmakers are busy finalizing budget priorities. Many of Illinois' nearly 300 craft brewers are hoping to have some of that money set aside for them.
State Senator Sara Feigenholtz has already proposed one bill that would give $125 million to Illinois restaurants and bars. The money would come from the state's COVID-19 relief funds and be handed out in grants as early as this summer.
But some brewers would like to see lawmakers push it one step further and draft a bill that specifically targets craft breweries.
"The more businesses that we can help, hopefully it's more businesses that we can keep open here in Illinois," said Kevin Cary, owner of Begyle Brewing in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood.
The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild says craft beer has been one of the pandemic's hardest-hit industries. According to the guild, only 20% of breweries received a grant from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund before the money ran out. Today, many more are still waiting to see if they'll get anything from the state's Back to Business grant program, the guild reports.
Cary is one of those owners, saying he applied for the Back to Business grant eight months ago but has yet to see any funds.
"In the first year (of the pandemic) there was more access to relief funds. Since then, there's been some state and federal grants that have been available but a lot of it has been applying and waiting and many times I'm finding out that the funds have run out," he said.
But he said the guild and its members have hope, as the state figures out how to allocate a surplus of funds for the upcoming budget. Breweries are hoping to cash in on that money to help offset the losses of the last two years as well as rising operating costs.
"We took on a sizable amount of debt," Cary said. "Unfortunately, even though there was some help in the beginning, our costs have gone up and the landlords still want to get paid."
And although Cary is able to have his doors open to customers — unlike the early days of the pandemic — he says things still aren't back to normal.
"There's this common misconception that everything is back to normal and Covid is over," he said. "But we see it week in and week out that consumers — their purchasing habits have changed drastically. We can have a really good Saturday one weekend, and then the following weekend it's crickets and it just comes in ebbs and flows. I think that we're just not back to where we were in 2019."