Jester King comments on the state of TX law, especially as it applies to beer festivals…blog post is here:
Last weekend we attended the Shelton Brothers/12% Imports Festival in Worcester, Massachusetts. The festival was an incredible, one of a kind event to say the least with an astounding array of small, artisan brewers and beers from around the world. We were honored to pour beer alongside many of the brewers who inspired us to start Jester King in the first place such as De la Senne, Cantillon, Theriez and Jolly Pumpkin.
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Imagine a local event, right here in Austin, where you could sample hand-crafted beers from both the world’s most highly regarded artisan brewers, and talented newcomers whose names you probably never even heard before. OK, now stop imagining and instead start planning your trip to wherever next year’s festival is going to be held, because without some serious changes to Texas law, there is absolutely no chance that it will ever come here.
In order for an event like this to take place in Texas, every individual, participating brewer, including foreign brewers, would need to pay up to $6,128 in licensing fees, fill out extensive paperwork (available only in English) and submit each of their beers that they planned to pour for label approval, along with either samples or a certified laboratory analysis, even if they had no intention of doing any future business in the State. Of the 70+ artisan producers in attendance, you could easily count on one hand the number whose products are currently available in Texas, and unless the law changes, we aren’t likely to see that number increase all that significantly anytime soon.
There’s been a good deal of focus placed on the need to change the laws prohibiting Texas production brewers from selling their products to the general public on site and preventing Texas brewpubs from distributing theirs off site, and we absolutely, wholeheartedly support the collective efforts that are being made to eliminate these restrictions. At the same time, however, we also feel that in order for Texas to develop a truly world-class artisan beer scene, in addition to supporting its local brewers and easing the path to market for small in-state start-ups, it also needs to remove the economic and regulatory barriers that seem virtually designed to deny its citizens access to world-class artisan products that happen to be made outside its borders.
To illustrate how impossible the current system is for small brewer’s both in and out of state, here’s what production breweries selling different volumes of beer in Texas pay on a per case and per barrel basis in combined excise and licensing fees, assuming equal sales of “beer” and “ale”:
Case Equiv. 
Again, these quantities would include one-off shipments for festivals or other special events. For us, the message these numbers seem to send is that the smaller you are, the less welcome you are in our state, and that if you’re planning on selling 1,000 cases a year or less, you really have no business being here at all. As Texas craft brewers and as supporters of small business more generally, that’s not a message that we, at Jester King, feel we ought to be sending, and it’s not one that we’re willing to endorse.
If you agree with us, please consider supporting Open the Taps in their efforts not only to give Texas breweries and brewpubs the tools they need to survive and grow, but also to change the state’s regulatory climate so as to make Texas a better place for craft beer consumers—the type of place that can play host to an event like The Festival, if not next year, then at least at some point in the future.
Details here!
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