Hope in Sight for Texas Breweries

As any Texas brewer knows, TABC and Texas liquor laws are some of the toughest in the nation. Over the last few years, several new laws have been proposed and some passed that didn’t exactly excite the local brewer community.

However, a recent ruling gave brewers a win to put on the scoreboard for this year.

What does this mean for Texas Brewers?

A Texas state judge struck down the law that prohibited brewers from receiving monetary compensation from distributors for their distribution rights, declaring the law unconstitutional. The rule was proposed with a bundle in 2013 that, as a whole, was beneficial to Texas breweries.

Late last year, Live Oak Brewing, Peticolas Brewing and Revolver Brewing sued the state in an effort to win back the valuable capital they can receive from selling their own distribution rights, something that breweries were able to do before 2013.

The state has in place a three-tier system, which they argued helped maintain boundaries, in which alcohol makers create their products, distributors sell them to retailers and retailers sell them to the public. Brewery lawyers argued that the 2013 distribution rule was bad for breweries and that they should be able to use the value of their business to expand it.

What’s next?

While this is a win for brewers, the battle isn’t over yet. There are still two other beer-related cases to hit Texas courts soon. One involving the selling of beer-to-go from a brewery’s facilities (something that wineries and distilleries in Texas are able to legally do.) The other involved the selling of crowlers, which TABC says are one-use cans rather than aluminum growlers.

Both cases should be resolved in the next month or so.