Hallelujah! A raft of bills that would dramatically alter the way beer is sold and consumed in Texas sailed through tentative approval from the House on Friday after a lengthy and disputatious process between brewers and beer distributors. If finally approved next week, the legislation will go straight to the governor’s desk without another stop. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘microbreweries’
Craft distilling
We’re all familiar with the craft brewing industry in Texas, but did you know there is also a growing number of craft distillers in the Lone Star State? Whether you knew that or not, you will probably not be surprised to learn that they too have been held back by archaic alcohol laws, but like [...]
Where things stand with two weeks to go in the legislative session
With the Thursday midnight deadline for bills to pass on second reading in the House, I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the status of some major legislation and legislative priorities. There are two weeks left in the regular session, and the specter of overtime is hazy but present. [...]
Auto dealers versus Tesla
I’m pretty sure the dealers will win this round, but I doubt they can win in the long run. Texas auto dealers and their lobbyists in Austin are targeting legislation that would allow Tesla Motor Inc. to sell its all-electric vehicles directly to customers — upending a longstanding protection of dealers in state law. After [...]
Craft beer bills pass out of House committee
From Open The Taps. After waiting in a long queue of bills that were sent from the Senate to the House, the Craft Beer Bills (SBs 515-518 and 639) should see some movement again this week. Our team in Austin has been in regular communication with the House sponsor (Chairman Wayne Smith) and his committee [...]
What does Tesla Motors have in common with microbreweries?
Both are forbidden by archaic laws from selling their wares direct to the public. Electric car maker Elon Musk wants to bet big on Texas – but he’s having trouble getting his chips on the table. Musk, a South African-born entrepreneur and the CEO, chairman and co-founder of Tesla Motors, wants to sell Tesla’s electric [...]
Craft beer bills pass out of the Senate
A good day indeed. The Texas Senate voted Monday to give craft brewers and brewpubs new opportunities to sell their beer. “To see that happen was amazing,” said Scott Metzger, a San Antonio brewpub owner who worked with other brewers, legislators and wholesalers in negotiating a compromise. Brock Wagner, owner of Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewing, [...]
Craft beer legislation advances
Moving forward. Legislation authorizing the most significant changes in 20 years to the way beer is bought and sold in Texas passed a key Senate committee Tuesday with broad support. Under terms of the bills, Houston’s Saint Arnold and other Texas craft breweries could sell a limited amount of beer on site and brewpubs like [...]
Craft beer bills get their hearing
From the Trib: The Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Tuesday acted as legislative referee over bills that would allow craft breweries to sell on their premises and self-distribute in Texas, but critics said the legislation would hurt the state’s system of alcohol production and distribution. “It’s two different visions of where the beer industry [...]
I knew all this beer harmony couldn’t last forever
We have some legislative beer controversy on our hands. Texas brewers would lose a potential source of capital and some flexibility in negotiating sales under a bill before the state Senate. The Texas Craft Brewers Guild immediately opposed the legislation, as did one of the state’s two major groups representing wholesale distributors – which called [...]
Here come the craft beer bills
From Brewed and Never Battered. Senator Kevin Eltife (R-District 1) introduced bi-partisan legislation along with Co-Authors, Senators Brian Birdwell (R-District 22), John Carona (R-District 16), Eddie Lucio (D-District 27), Leticia Van de Putte (D-District 26), Kirk Watson (D-District 14), and John Whitmire (D-District 15) to modernize the state’s alcohol regulatory system to make more competitive Texas’s small, [...]
What does it mean to be a “craft” beer?
The Chron has a Q&A with beer aficionado Jenn Litz that raises an interesting question. Q: How are the major breweries responding to the craft beer trend? A: Mostly through the acquisition route. They know the milliennials are drinking craft, and the margins are good with craft beer. The majority of craft beer drinkers either [...]
Craft versus crafty
Just because that beer you’re drinking has a quirky name and a whimsical label on the bottle doesn’t mean it came from a microbrewery. In a biting opening salvo, a trade group for the nation’s craft brewers on Thursday accused Anheuser-Busch InBev and other major manufacturers of “deliberately attempting to blur the lines between their [...]
Craft beer is good for Texas
Because it can’t be said too often, am I right? Here’s a brief Q&A with Charles Valhonrat, the executive director of the Texas Craft Brewer’s Guild. Q: What are your goals for the 2013 legislative session, and how do you plan to get lawmakers on board? A: There are two primary goals we are driving [...]
Beer is still a job creator
We really owe a debt of gratitude to beer, in particular to microbrewers. Saint Arnold Brewing Co., the city’s oldest craft, has 43 employees and is in the midst of hiring at least three more, founder Brock Wagner said. That is about double the staff before production shifted to a new brewery with more capacity [...]
More on the microbrewers’ legislative strategy
The Statesman returns to our favorite subject. The small brewers, generally a young and passionate group, always have been better at creating hoppy and original brews than navigating the Legislature and the network of big-money lobbyists who are experts at quietly influencing politicians. The lack of political savvy among craft brewers has hampered their efforts [...]
What the microbreweries want from the next legislative session
Scott Metzger of Freetail Brewing has an update on what he and his craft-brewing colleagues have been working on. Brock Wagner (of Saint Arnold of course) and I have been Co-Chairing the Texas Craft Brewers Guild Legislative Committee and have come a long way. There is still a ton of work to do, and nothing [...]
Fort Bend Brewing
Microbreweries sure are a growth industry around here. Chris Leonard came to Houston and was struck by the similarity with his hometown of Philadelphia. It was enough to convince him to move to Missouri City from the City of Brotherly Love. “I see the opportunity here, and I’m really excited about it,” he said on [...]
What does it mean to be a beer?
Boy, is that a deep question or what? Until recently, beer drinkers who took their time to read the labels on their bottles or cans may have encountered some head-scratching fine print concerning Texas. Underneath the name of Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyn Lager, for instance, was the note “In Texas, malt liquor.” Even closer inspection would [...]
Beer is a job creator
Microbreweries are, anyway. Craft brewing in Texas could add 52,000 jobs and mushroom into a $5.6 billion industry by 2020 if state lawmakers next year ease restrictions on breweries and restaurants that make beer on-site, a study prepared by the brewers claims. That compares with the estimated $608 million economic impact that smaller, independently owned [...]
Our stupid beer laws in action
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Owners of the popular Eatsie Boys food truck will open their first stand-alone restaurant later this year on Montrose Boulevard, serving everything from breakfast items to sandwiches to house-made gelato. Closer to downtown, and possibly around the same time, the young entrepreneurs will cut the ribbon on [...]
Open The Taps voters’ guide for 2012
Want to know how your preferred legislative candidates stand on the important issue of beer freedom in Texas? Then the Open The Taps Voters Guide for 2012 is for you. As a reminder, Open The Taps is about the following: Open The Taps was created for the sole purpose of bettering the craft beer environment [...]
The year in beer
Scott Metzger offers a look back on beer news from 2011, and makes some predictions for this year. Of the most interest to me is this:
Brewers win one in court
From CultureMap: A small but significant victory was had for craft beermakers and drinkers Monday when a federal judge ruled (partially) in favor of Austin’s Jester King Brewery in a lawsuit against the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Jester King filed a motion for summary judgement in Federal court in October over what it deemed to [...]
Still more microbrew options
Our flagons runneth over, as new microbreweries keep springing up. If each opens as planned, Buffalo Bayou, 8th Wonder and Yard Sale Brewing companies would bring to eight the number of plants making beer within an hour’s drive of downtown Houston, up from two less than four years ago. The newcomers hope to profit from [...]
Open The Taps
Better late than never. “The fourth tier wants to speak up,” said Ted Duchesne, a Clear Lake-area beer blogger and president of a nascent nonprofit organization that pledges to work on behalf of consumers to increase the availability of craft beer in Texas. The group, Open The Taps, hopes to do so by encouraging legislation [...]
713 ™
WTF? Anheuser-Busch is counting on civic pride to make its next product a smash seller: beer named after America’s various beer-drinking cities, based on their area codes. To that end, AB has already applied for a federal trademark for “713″ for Houston, reports Craft Business Daily, as well as 314 for St. Louis, 303 for [...]
Yet another new microbrewery to open
Not far from my house, as it happens. Startup Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. will be located much closer to I-10 than to its namesake waterway, but founder Rassul Zarinfar says that’s by design. [...] The company has leased a 7,800 sq. ft. warehouse at 5301 Nolda St., at the corner of Detering, in Cottage Grove. [...]
Beer solidarity
Good for them. Small businesses like Ziggy’s Bar & Grill and Kata Robata have scratched Bud Light from their menus and have spread the word through social media, as response to HB 602′s recent death at the hands of Anheuser-Busch. “We have ’86 Bud Light’ written on the door and people who got that, got [...]
Another microbrewer comes to town
The beer scene in Houston keeps getting better. Eric Warner was at the well-regarded Flying Dog Brewery in Colorado for a decade, as brewmaster and then as chief executive. While there, the brewery came out with such beers as Snake Dog IPA, Double Dog double pale ale, Gonzo Imperial Porter and Dogtoberfest Märzen. By the [...]
RIP, HB602
Dammit. Texans won’t be buying liquor on Sunday and the state’s 29 brewpubs won’t be competing with their out-of-state rivals on local grocery shelves. And Texas breweries or liquor distillers still can’t sell a 12-pack of beer or a souvenir bottle of bourbon to tourists, as the Legislature has killed all bills related to changes [...]
HB602 clears Senate committee
One more step forward for microbreweries and their ability to let customers bring their product home after a tour, as HB602 gets voted out of the Senate Business & Commerce Committee. HB 602 is a compromise – it still bans true retail sales, but would allow small breweries to give away up to 144 ounces [...]
A night with the Skeeters
I learned a couple of interesting things from this Richard Justice column about the forthcoming Sugar Land Skeeters minor league baseball team. Among them: You may think you know what a Skeeter is, but you don’t. If you’re wondering what a Skeeter is, don’t. “It’s not a mosquito,” [team president Matt] O’Brien said. He will [...]
A win for the microbrewers
Woo hoo! Craft beer brewers came to the Capitol this session with a number of bills giving them greater latitude in getting their beers to customers. [Thursday], the House gave an early OK to one of those bills, allowing breweries to charge admission for tours, and include up to two six-packs of beers to give [...]