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Lager Heads wouldn’t have expected the top honchos of the National Beer Wholesalers Association to be big fans of tighter regulations. But NBWA President Craig Purser are chairman Phil Terry are full of surprises.

Both men issued a challenge at the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators’ annual conference last week. Specifically, they challenged regulators to get active and aggressively regulate the alcohol industry’s middle tier. (In the U.S., according to state and federal laws, brewers sell beer to distributors - “wholesalers” - who then sell to retailers. That arrangement goes all the way back to the 1930s, when Prohibition ended.)

It’s not every day that you hear an industry invite more regulation. That has been especially true for beer distributors. According to trade publication Insights Express, it wasn’t that long ago that the beer wholesalers’ group had little or no presence at the annual meeting of state regulators. For years, “regulators listened to presentations by direct shippers and big suppliers seeking less onerous, more standardized regulation” to fit their business interests, Insights reported.

But regulators got the opposite message at the start of this year’s meeting in Nashville. For one thing, wholesalers and their pro-regulation allies apparently dominated the proceedings. For another, their enthusiastic embrace of state-based regulations broke the mold of the beer industry being focused on how states should streamline laws to accommodate the industry.

“Regulate us, make us accountable,” Terry said. He invited regulators to make distributors “more afraid of you” than suppliers or retailers to assure accountability.

The point: Distributors wanted to make the case that they - and state-based alcohol regulation - play a crucial role in providing “traceability,” accountability and transparency in the beer supply chain.

“The time-tested system of state alcohol controls that began with the 21st Amendment is an effective system that ensures alcohol, a unique product, is manufactured, distributed and sold safely and responsibly,” Purser said. “The need for state regulators to really regulate is greater now than ever before.”