Legislation Affecting Craft Brewers In Texas

March 29, 2013  |  By

At Vela Wood we enjoy throwing back a few cold ones every now and then, and representing brewers (or people interested in becoming brewers) has become a small, but very interesting, niche of our practice. As such, we try to keep up with advancements and goings-on in the beer world. When you think of Texas you don’t necessarily think of great beer, but hopefully with emerging legislation affecting craft brewers in the Lone Star state, that sort of thinking will change.

Current legislation in Texas makes it a little difficult to be a craft brewer in Texas and sell your own brews through distributors on a larger (geographic) scale. However, a new two-pack of bills that was just passed through the Senate would allow brewpubs to sell a limited amount of their beer through distributors. These brewpubs would also be allowed to sell their products to consumers on-site, another new and much needed development in the world of craft brewing in Texas.

Along with these two bills (authored and sponsored by Senator Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler), a third bill affecting small brewers and distributors passed that would ban the practice of reach-back pricing. Reach-back pricing is where the manufacturer changes what they charge the distributors of their brews after the distributor has already sold the alcohol to a retailer. This bill was proposed by Senator John Carona from Dallas.

While these three proposals still need to pass through the House in order to become enacted as law, the overwhelming approval in the Senate is definitely a victory for craft and small-scale brewers across the state, and the passage of the bills would hopefully lead to a boom in craft brewing. If you’ve always dreamed of opening your own brewery, or want to learn more about this new and exciting area of development in Texas, reach out to us.

About the Author(s)

Kevin Vela

Kevin is the managing partner at Vela Wood. He focuses his practice in the areas of venture financing, M&A, fund representation, and gaming law.

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