This was sent to me from Saint Arnold’s brewery and is in reference to a piece of legislation that is being proposed that would allow small breweries to sell their prodcuts to you on-site. It would be nice to “shop” after a tour, just like you can after visiting a winery.
Large distributors are the main opponents to this bill as they are afraid by opening this up, it may infringe upon some of the volume they would be able to sell. This bill has a compromise built in to it that would limit the product sold by the local breweries to 5,000 barrels. Even with the limitation I think this would be a great incentive for craft breweries to open up their doors, provide more tours and elaborate on their facilities. Check it out:
SUPPORT HB 2094! YOU CAN BE A PART OF CHANGING THE TEXAS LAW!
State Rep. Jessica Farrar has filed a bill this session that would allow you to get a six pack or a case of beer from your favorite craft brewery at the end of a tour! This change in the law would go a long way toward creating a healthier environment in Texas for craft breweries and help us compete fairly with out-of-state craft breweries that have the same rights in their home states. Beer distributors are helping support Farrar’s effort as well, but we need you to tell your legislators that you support this, and that you would like to be able to get a six pack of beer at the end of a Saint Arnold tour just like many of you have when you have visited breweries in other states.
Supporting this bill will only take you 5 minutes. Here is what you need to do:
If you don’t know who your state representative is, then go to:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx
You can then click on the name of your state representative (not the state senator – that will come later). This should send you to their home page where you can usually click on a link named “send email” or “email”, or sometimes there is a form right there for sending them an email. Write a brief email stating your support for HB 2094 and that this is an important issue to you. Let them know that the Licensing & Administrative Committee will be having a hearing on it this Wednesday, March 18. That’s all!
In case you are in Austin and would like to attend this Wednesday’s hearing, it will be at 8 AM (although we may be waiting for a while) in Room E2.016 in the state capitol.
Below is a list of the members of the Licensing & Administrative Committee. If you happen to live in one of their districts, PLEASE, PLEASE contact them. Here are the committee members:
Chair: Rep. Edmund Kuempel (Seguin)
Vice Chair: Rep. Senfronia Thompson (Houston)
Members: Rep. Warren Chisum (Panhandle)
Rep. Charlie Geren (Fort Worth)
Rep. Roland Gutierrez (San Antonio)
Rep. Mike Hamilton (Beaumont)
Rep. Delwin Jones (Lubbock)
Rep. Jose Menendez (San Antonio)
Rep. Chente Quintanilla (El Paso)
Your reward will be more and healthier Texas craft breweries and an even better experience when you visit Saint Arnold!
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And now a quick reminder of events surrounding that little ol’ music fesitval in town this week:
WED.-SAT, Royal Blue Grocery, 4th@ Nueces(360 bldg) will have draught Saint Arnold all weekend!
WED.- Music Pizza Meltdown,
FRI_SUN,, BBQ Cook-off, BMF Cooks, Travis County Fairgrounds SAT.-Antones Records-Freddy Steady’s 9th Annual Frontier A Go Go Rock & Roll Hootenanny
SAT- Ginger Man-New Granada Showcase at 3 pm NOTE!! You have ONE WEEK to come by the Ginger Man before they move to their new place!!!
I just sent an email to my local representative, Donna Howard, asking for her support in passing this.
Just a heads up that you can view an archived video of today’s testimony beginning at the 54 minute mark of this link:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/fx/av/committee81/90318a22.ram
You’ll need Real Player.
Thank you for the link. I just watched the 45 minutes of testimony and I will try to sum it up for those of you that may not want to invest that much time watching. I found it entertaining for some odd reason. There are currently 8 micro breweries in Texas and we rank 49th in the nation on a per capita basis for the number of breweries in a state. Brewery tours are on the rise across the nation and promise to provide some of the same experiences that we get to enjoy when we visit a winery. We heard from the owners of Real Ale, Independence, Live Oak and Saint Arnold. Their primary reason for supporting the bill was to allow business growth, to compete with out of state craft breweries and the big dogs, and provide a vehicle for them to market their product on a limited budget. The reason they cannot provide beer at the end of a tour as it stands now is because of the 3 tier system that is currently in place in the state of TX. This means that the maker cannot provide the beer directly, it must pass on to a distributor and from the distributor to a retailer. (I’m not sure how wineries currently get around this) We heard from one opponent to this bill and he represented the wholesale distributors. His primary objection was the potential for the 3 tier system to be infringed upon somewhat and that it could lead to a margin loss from import beers that compete for shelf space. I’m not quite sure I understood the hefty ramifications he was implying. There was one speaker that actually represented some of the major distributors, yet was for the passing of this bill, as it would be a win-win for all involved. In summary, I think the local craft brewers that spoke today presented a convincing argument. And as the bill is written there are compromises built in that would quell some of the oppositions’ points. I would suspect that this will pass, but time will tell.