Texas craft beer bills await governor’s signature

Craft Brewing Business has been tracking the progress of a package of Texas craft beer bills that would make business easier on Texas craft brewers. The package of bills — SB 515, 516, 517 and 518 — introduce changes for both brewpubs and package breweries. The bills allow Texas breweries to be more competitive and will drive growth for these small businesses that bring jobs and tax revenue to that State of Texas, Charles Vallhonrat, executive director of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild (TCBG) told us when we caught up with him in March. Now, the bills’ journey to become a law await the governor’s signature.

The San Antonio Business Journal reported that the bills passed the Senate and House of Representatives:

Texas’ independent craft brewery industry could generate an economic impact of $5.6 billion annually within a decade — while adding 52,000 jobs — if its development could resemble that of Texas’ wine industry after it underwent reform several years ago, the study estimates.

“We believe these new laws adhere to the state’s longstanding ‘three tier’ regulatory model, while exploring new marketing practices and allowing new technologies to better serve the interests of Texas retailers and consumers of malt beverages,” Donley said.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the laws:

SB 515

• Increases the production limit for a brewpub from 5,000 to 10,000 barrels (bbls) annually
• Authorizes a brewpub to sell its products to the wholesale tier for re-sale

SB 518

• Authorizes a production brewery under 225,000 bbls of annual production to sell up to 5,000 bbls annually of beer produced by the brewery to ultimate consumers for consumption on the premise of the brewery

SB 516 & 517

• Authorizes a production brewery under 125,000 bbls of annual production to self-distribute up to 40,000 bbls annually of beer, ale and malt-liquor to retailers. This right currently exists, but this bill will increase the size of the brewery while reducing the amount that may be self-distributed. Currently, a brewery under 75,000 bbls of annual production may self-distribute up to 75,000 bbls.
• Eliminates discrimination against out-of-state suppliers.

There was another piece of legislation that was also passed — SB 639, which makes it illegal for breweries to sell the right to distribute their products to wholesalers while making it legal for wholesalers to sell those same rights to one another.

For more details on the bills, check out our Texas Guild feature story.