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It’s an unfortunate joke that Texas is the last state in the US where customers can’t by beer-to-go when they visit a brewery….
And to make matters worse Texas state law allows customers who visit a winery or distillery to purchase wine and liquor to go, but not beer…insane!
And it’s not like the Texas brewers haven’t been fighting this ridiculousness…They’ve been fighting these ludicrous regulations (with origins that can be traced back to the prohibition era) for years.
But it’s still incomprehensible that Texas, now home to more than more than 250 breweries and one of the nation’s most vital craft beer scenes, is the last state in the US where customers can’t by beer-to-go when they visit a brewery.
And the fact that that since 2013 visitors have been allowed to enjoy a beer (or two) at Texas breweries are still not allowed to take a growler home with them in 2019, is the kind of logic-defying lawmaking that makes things like government shutdowns more understandable…
After more than four years of legislative wrangling Hops & Grain, one of Austin’s most popular craft breweries successfully shed the burdensome limitations that come with owning a beer manufacturing permit in Texas, by becoming a brewpub that can sell directly to their fans in December of 2o17.
According to current regulations Texas breweries are either ‘permitted’ as manufacturers or as brewpubs and each categorization comes with positives and negatives.
A Manufacturing Permit allows the brewery to produce as much beer as they want, but denies them the ability to sell beer ‘to go’ directly to their fans.
A Brewpub Permit limits the brewery’s production to making no more than 10,000 barrels of beer (per licensed location) but DOES allow that same operator to sell beer ‘to go’ from the brewery.
When Hops & Grain Brewing opened its doors in 2011 manufacturing breweries weren’t even allowed to sell beer for on-site consumption, much less selling beer to go. They operated a small tasting room back then where we gave away free samples and sold merchandise to spread the word but that was it.
And this kind of regulatory madness has been going on in Texas for years…
In 2015 Deep Ellum Brewing and Grapevine Craft Brewery sued the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) in hopes of gaining the ability to sell packaged beer to-go from their breweries.
But last March, the Texas Supreme Court reportedly ruled in favor of TABC, “citing the potential impact to Texas’ three-tier distribution system.”
So the beat goes on…
There are currently two new pieces of legislation waiting to be heard in committees in Austin according to ABC13 …But those bills will have to get past the state’s powerful distributor lobby, whose influence over lawmakers has already been recounted…
