Penguin City co-owner Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki appointed to Ohio Craft Brewers Association

The Ohio Craft Brewers Association elected seven new representatives to the board of directors.

They include Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki, co-owner of Penguin City Brewing Company in Youngstown.

The association highlighted the new electees and their roles in a press release on June 26.

Who is on the new board?

Jason Moore of Crooked Handle Brewing Company in Springboro will serve as the association’s vice-president, and Melissa Dallas of Upside Brewing in Sylvania will serve as secretary, following the end of term limits for the previous members in those positions.

Adam Benner of Land-Grant Brewing in Columbus was re-elected to a third term as the association’s treasurer. Sitting board members Steve Forman of Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland and Jamey Ratcliff of Sixth Sense Brewing Company in Jackson were each re-elected to their second terms.

Lyras-Bernacki and David Sutula, partner and brewer at Royal Docks Brewing Company in Canton, were elected to their first terms on the board.

When will their terms start?

The newly elected board members will start their two-year terms on Aug. 1 to oversee the Ohio Craft Brewers Association’s education, marketing and advocacy efforts.

The association’s top priority is reform of the Ohio Alcoholic Beverages Franchise Act, a law that traps small and independent breweries in lifetime contracts with beer wholesalers. When the law was passed in 1974, beer wholesalers needed protection from the power and influence of a handful of massive brewing conglomerates.

“From established breweries who rely on wholesale distributors to move their products across multiple regions to smaller breweries poised to grow and expand in the market, reform of franchise law will benefit the entirety of our industry, Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association said.”

Two bills have been introduced in the Ohio General Assembly – Senate Bill 138 and House Bill 306 – which would exempt breweries making fewer than 250,000 barrels of beer per year from franchise law, which the Craft Brewers Association will support.

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