Texas finally working with craft brewery's?

Texas is going to be the next craft brewery hotspot... it already is to some degree.

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There was a Texas Brewery bitching about this on FB yesterday.

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Texas Big Beer Brewery?

I saw that... they definitely think there are some negatives for the really small guys that only self-distribute now.

Gotcha. But they will be able to sell direct, so that might be worth it.

I don't know the cash incentives part of it all that well, or how it really works now.

So does this law prevent them from self-distributing? I know TX breweries are allowed to do that now if they want.

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Not completely sure, but just saw that Buffalo Bayou is pissed about it as well.

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Just saw that... sounds like they are all pissed about the same thing, and that is not being able to self-distribute.

So this is really hurting the smaller breweries that currently self-distribute, but the bigger ones that use distributors and the brewpubs come out ahead.

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Texas is going to be the next craft brewery hotspot... it already is to some degree.

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We could be. There is still a lot of work to do

We certainly have the population for it, and extreme pride in "made in Texas"

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I'm curious as to how it's hurting them(growth, less distribution, etc) because two of my favorite breweries, (512) and Live Oak, are smaller, self-distributors.

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Sounds like it's going to cost them more, because they'll have to get a middle man involved, and they are no longer allowed to receive cash incentives to pick a certain distributor over another.

But the distributor is allowed to share in marketing costs, so it seems like that cash incentive could just be re-routed. Still, they'll have to use a middle man instead of self-distributing, which will either increase costs to consumers or decrease profits to the brewery.

hardly, it's a great step in the right direction.

have to take what you can get, and it's taken years (I believe this is the third, possibly fourth legislative session this has been introduced) to get this far, and it's just now getting out of committee. It still has to go up for vote

here is a write-up from Open The Taps on the bill:

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Legislative Update: Commentary on the Craft Beer Bills



Submitted by Leslie_Sprague on Wed, 03/13/2013 - 11:05


As consumers who have led the charge in advocating for craft beer, we knew it would be an uphill fight against entrenched and powerful interests in Austin. Changing the law is no easy feat, particularly when many of those laws date back to the Prohibition Era.

Our goal has been crystal clear from the start: Provide consumers with better access to craft beer by modernizing Texas laws to support the thriving craft beer industry. That objective is the yardstick we’ve used to measure each of these bills. If changing the law would make it more difficult for a craft brewer or brewpub to survive, it would clearly not be in the best interest of consumers. We support unrestricted access to craft beer and unlimited choices for Texas consumers.

The negotiations have been very difficult and tense over the past several weeks and the senators who are elected to resolve these complex issues have come up with a reasonable, although far from perfect, compromise package of bills for this legislative session.

Below are the highlights from the bills passed in committee yesterday:
• Consumers will be able to buy beer at craft breweries. This access is limited to on-premise consumption, so we remain vigilantly committed to fighting for off-premise sales, which would give craft brewers parity with Texas wineries.
• Consumers will be able to buy brewpub beer at retail outlets, which was previously illegal.
• Consumers will benefit by seeing more choices of craft beer and ale as the self-distribution limits have been raised to help craft breweries get off the ground.
• Consumers will see more out-of-state craft beer as the distribution regulations have been equalized between in-state and out-of-state craft breweries.
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We still have problems with the prohibitive language in SB 639 and would like to see the bill amended to address the legitimate concerns of craft brewers.


This is by no means a perfect package of regulatory changes, but again it is a good step. Things happen incrementally in legislative bodies, and we will be back next session if necessary to continue the fight to OPEN THE TAPS in Texas.

We still have a few points on our wish list to accomplish, and we are looking for ways to implement those points, but this may be the most we can get at this time and we will consider it more progress than has been made since 1993 when brew pubs were first allowed in Texas, post-prohibition.

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it's still a complete load of bullshite that you cannot buy beer from a brewery to take home. At least breweries can have legit taprooms now and serve beer there instead of the assinine token system we use now.

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Then why are the craft breweries touting it as a terrible compromise on FB?

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not all of them are. Scott Metzger is the owner of Freetail Brewing and is negotiating on behalf of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. He sees it as progress.

Here is Brock Wagner's statement:

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The bills, SB 515-518 and 639, when taken as a whole, are a significant improvement in the environment for craft breweries in Texas. The net effect is strongly positive. The negative was when SB 639 was filed a few weeks ago, it was a major step backwards. It addressed many topics, most of which have been significantly changed. The one craft breweries were most concerned with dealt with breweries selling their territorial rights to distributors. As it currently stands, the TABC is not clear on the legality of these transactions. They have occurred, but nobody really wants to talk publicly about it because it is a gray area of the law. The TABC asked for clarification from the legislature. As a guild, we argued with all resources we had at our disposal that it should be codified as legal. We lost that argument and the legislation that is moving forward declares the breweries sale of territorial rights is illegal. What we did get out of these negotiations however was the support from distributor groups (both the Beer Alliance, who was already supporting SB 515-518, and the WBDT who had been opposing these bills) for our bills, SB 515-518. Also, SB 639 codifies as legal payments between distributors and breweries for several other activities which can be of benefit to craft breweries. SB 515-518 are now linked to SB 639. If SB 639 doesn't pass, SB 515-518 will die so there is no picking-and-choosing.

The value of SB 515-518, as seen in other states with rights for on premise sales and for brewpubs to distribute, is enormous and actually far outweighs any negatives associated with SB 639. 20 years from now, everybody in the Texas craft brewing industry will see this package as a huge positive. The problem is that while the package of bills is a positive for all craft breweries individually, it does not affect all breweries equally. Breweries that have recently opened and are currently self-distributing may see the negatives more clearly than the positives at the moment. We (Saint Arnold) have already assigned all of our distribution rights so SB 639 has less of an effect on us. But it is important for all craft breweries to take the long term view on this. It is a net positive.

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big changes aren't going to happen overnight, but Texas has been resistant to any change thus far when dealing with the craft beer industry

I'd like to hear more about why it's a bad deal for small breweries. And again, the bill may still be changed before it reaches a vote

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Posted by Fratastic423 Freetail is a brewpub so they will benefit a lot. And saint Arnold is the one of the biggest in Texas, so two places on the extreme. Maybe the middle guys see issues with it.

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I was about to post the same as above. Middle guy or little guy? Will this make it harder to start a brewery in texas now?

The wine/beer law disparity all over this country pisses me off. Make everything the same for both enterprises.