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(Courtesy Texas Craft Brewers Guild)
Just in time for the Labor Day, new beer legislation goes into effect on September 1, which basically allows Texas to catch up with much of the nation.
Under the previous law you could only purchase beer to-go from brew pubs but not from breweries.
Brewpubs were capped at 10,000 barrels annually. Over that and you were considered a brewery in the Lone Star State.
And under the old law breweries like Saint Arnold in Houston, Texas were denied the ability (and the economic advantage) to sell beer-to-go to its fans.
Prior to September 1st Texas brewers were either ‘permitted’ as manufacturers or as brewpubs and each categorization comes with positives and negatives.
A Manufacturing Permit allowed the brewery to produce as much beer as they want, but denied them the ability to sell beer ‘to go’ directly to their fans.
A Brewpub Permit limited the brewery’s production to making no more than 10,000 barrels of beer (per licensed location) but allowed that same operator to sell beer ‘to go’ from the brewery.
Things were so convoluted that successful operations such as Hops’ & Grain decided it would be smarter (and more economically advantageous) for them to ditch their manufacturing permit, and work to secure brewpub status which would allow them to sell directly to their fans.
And that led the Austin, Texas brewery to embark on a tedious bureaucratic journey that ended with them transitioning to brewpub status in December of 2017.
The new law, which came together after a giant compromise between the Texas Craft Brewers Guild and the Beer Alliance of Texas last February and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbot in June, allows customers to buy one case of beer (24 12 oz. cans or 288 oz. total) per day from the brewery.
And on Sunday (another blue law by the wayside) beer fans all over Texas will be attending brewery celebrations and leaving with beer-to-go…
