Texas has many strange laws relating to beer and the brewing industry. Ask any commercial brewer in the Lone Star State what he or she thinks about Texas brewing laws and you are likely to witness rolling of the eyes followed by an offer to schedule some time with you to more thoroughly discuss the subject at depth.
Texas brewers have been complaining loudly about the misleading nature and often utter stupidity of these laws for some time and many have agreed that court action would be necessary to overturn these laws on unconstitutional grounds. Jester King craft brewery, a business located in Austin actually filed a lawsuit against the Texas TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission), challenging the constitutionality of several Texas beer laws on 1st and 14th amendment grounds.
Today, December 20, 2011 a judge has made a decision and has sided with the Texas brewing industry. This is great news for the growing Texas beer business because it offers greater flexibility and allows brewers to (gasp!) actually tell the truth about their products. The judgments include changes such as:
Advertising: According to the old rules, breweries were forbidden from telling customers where to buy their products. Now, they can freely state this information, in much the same way that any other advertiser is permitted to do. In addition, brewers are no longer forbidden to use certain descriptions to describe their products, such as “strong ale.” If the ale is strong, brewers can now say so.
Labeling: Previous Texas law required malt beverages below 4 percent alcohol by weight to be labelled as “beer” and anything over 4 percent alcohol by weight to be labelled as “ale” or “malt liquor.” This false and misleading rule is now overturned and brewers can accurately refer to their products as beer, ale, lager, or whatever description accurately fits.
Why Texas had laws like this in place is anyone’s guess, but most people agree that big business interests were behind the restrictions. The big brewers know that the craft beer industry is a very real and growing threat to their survival. The big brewers also have boatloads of cash and they know that they can sway lawmakers through financial means. By confusing the public and by making it more difficult for small craft breweries to advertise and market their products, the big breweries were hoping to reign- in the craft brewing threat, at least to a small degree.
Texas still has a long way to go in its efforts to shed decades of stupidity but the overturning of these crazy beer laws is at least one step in the right direction. Now, when I pick up a bottle of ale at my favorite carryout, I won’t have to wonder whether it was really brewed with ale yeast or lager yeast. I can actually get the truth- something that is sorely lacking in Texas politics and has been lacking for years, both with business and otherwise.
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