Direct Sales Bill Misses Calendar

Even with it's recent success reaching the Calendars Committee, the latest version of the direct sales for breweries bill, HB 2904, failed to appear on the schedule published last week for the current legislative session. This ends the progress for the proposed bill and any attempts to change brewery sales restrictions this session.

The bill's sponsor, Representative Jessica Farrar of Houston, has pledged to attempt this bill once again in the next session in 2011, just as she did two years ago.

Direct Sales Bill Out of Committee

The bill to allow breweries to sell direct to the public, HB 2094, moved out of the House committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures yesterday with a 5-2 vote, as reported by the Houston Chronicle in "Small breweries get closer selling on-site."

The bill now moves to the Calendar Committee and still faces the challenge of entering the schedule for a full House vote before the legislature adjourns on June 1st.

Direct Sales Bill Stuck in Committee

The latest status of the direct sales bill HB 2094, which would allow breweries to sell directly to the public, is reported in the Houston Chronicle's piece "11th-hour push made to get changes to help small brewers."

As detailed, the bill is currently stuck in committee and has only a "50-50" chance of moving to a vote before the legislature adjourns on June 1st.

New Winery Bill Introduced to Sell Beer

As reported by Barry Shlachter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in "Craft brewers want to sell packaged tours along with samples," another new bill has been introduced to allow Texas wineries to sell beer on-premise.

Sponsored by State Senator Jane Nelson of Tarrant County, SB 1333 was filed on March 4th and is currently in committee. This bill does not include allowing the same privilege for Texas breweries.

Rahr & Sons in FW Weekly

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

Rahr & Sons is featured in this week's Fort Worth Weekly with "A Rahr Breed" by Dan McGraw, including a profile of the brewery and its involvement with the pending state legislation to allow direct sales at breweries.

Texas Brewers in the News

March brought a lot of coverage for Texas brewers, with most focused on the direct sales bills pending before the State legislature:

• "Tiny brewers thinking big: Move would allow them to sell beverages at their plants," Houston Chronicle
• "Microbreweries want consumers to be able to buy beer at breweries" (also appearing as "Heads up: Microbreweries want Legislature to clear the way for sales on site"), Fort Worth Star-Telegram, along with the accompanying video piece, "Brewers want to sell beer at the brewery"
• "Beer drinkers could purchase direct from local breweries under compromise plan," TexasWatchdog.org
• "Regulation, legislation and fun you can't have with Texas beer," Austin American-Statesman
• "Souvenir beer: We'll drink to this bill!" Houston Chronicle editorial
  

In other news, Lee Nichols featured an interview with Mike Renfro and his book, Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer, in the Austin Chronicle piece, "Shiner at 100: Spoetzl Brewery."

Also, Saint Arnold's North Texas sales rep Kendra Harrell was briefly profiled in the Dallas Observer food blog "City of Ate" as "10 Questions: Kendra Harrell."

Texas Brewers in the News

A busy month for media coverage of Texas brewing. An op-ed piece appeared in UNT's North Texas Daily as a local guide to the best of Denton's liquor stores and other retailers entitled, "Beer Snob's guide to Denton booze shops."

J.R. Labbe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentions Rahr & Sons in an editorial about HB 1062 in another op-ed piece entitled, "Easing restrictions on microbreweries."HB 1062 is current legislation in Austin known as the Texas Brewers Parity Amendment that would allow Texas brewers to sell their product direct to the public.

The Covey's brewmaster Jamie Fulton and Head Chef Sean Merchant again appeared on the cooking portion of the Dallas morning show, WFAA's "Good Morning, Texas." They appeared in a segment called "Valentine's Day Dishes with The Covey," promoting their Valentine's Day specials for both food and beer.

Austin's breweries also received some national media attention with a piece on National Public Radio (NPR) concerning the economic effects within the brewing business entitled, "Brewery Business Hopping Despite Tanking Economy." Featured in this story were Josh Wilson of the Draught House and Kevin Brand of (512) Brewing.

Barry Schlacter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted a review of Spoetzl's Shiner 100 entitled, "Flavorful beer marks Spoetzl's centennial." And Patrick Beach provides a suitable tribute in the Austin American-Statesman to Austin's relocating Ginger Man with his homage, "There's a tear in my beer - the Ginger Man is moving."

Direct Sales Bill Introduced

Representative Lon Burnam of Tarrant County has introduced legislation to the Texas House of Representatives that would legalize the sale of beer directly from the brewery. Filed February 4th, the bill known as HB 1062, or the Texas Brewers Parity Amendment, includes the language

The holder of a brewer's permit whose premises is located in an area where the sale of ale and malt liquor is legal and who produces at least 1,000 barrels of ale or malt liquor a year may sell ale and malt liquor manufactured or bottled on the permitted premises to ultimate consumers: (1) in unbroken packages for off-premises consumption in an amount that does not exceed 35,000 gallons annually; and (2) for consumption on the brewery premises if the brewery is located in an area where the sale of ale and malt liquor for on-premises consumption is legal.

An identical bill SB 754 was filed today in the State Senate by Senator Wendy Davis, also of Fort Worth.

Current TABC law requires that brewers sell only to distributors and prohibits any direct sales to the public. The direct sales of wine from Texas vineyards was legalized several years ago with no negative consequences to winemakers, distributors or retailers.

Similar legislation was sponsored by Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold two years ago but was defeated.

Update: A slightly modified competing bill, HB 2094, has also been filed by Representative Jessica Farrar of Houston. Farrar sponsored the previous similar legislation that was defeated two years ago.