Governor Greg Abbott could sign a bill into law that would could affect craft beer makers.

Chris Weingart, the brew master and co-owner of Blackwater Draw Brewing Company in Bryan does not agree with House Bill 3287.

"We're all hoping and praying that there's enough support out there to convince Governor Abbott to actually veto the bill," said Weingart.

If he signs it, brewers would have to sell their beer to a distributor and then buy it back, just to be able to sell it in their own taproom. This applies to breweries who make more than 225,000 barrels a year.

Under current law, those who operate taprooms cannot exceed sales of 5,000 barrels per taproom sale site.

"It increases prices through the taproom, which is what this wants to accomplish. It wants to line the pockets of distributors in the middle-tier at the expense of the beer drinker," said Weingart.

State Representative Craig Goldman authored the bill and said that statement is incorrect.

"Price increase would be at the discretion of the brewery, not from a mandate by the Legislature. Passage of HB3287 would not affect operational costs of independent craft breweries and therefore, places no artificial price floor on the taproom," said Goldman.

Major companies like Anheuser Busch Inbev, MillerCoors, and Heineken have started buying up craft breweries and making competition unfair amongst other local manufacturers.

Goldman authored the bill to protect the craft beer industry from bigger companies becoming too powerful, like the large multinational breweries

Blackwater Draw started less than five years ago and they said it could affect their future.

“It won’t really affect us here locally right now because we’re so small, but what’s the incentive to grow big if you know you’re going to have something ripped away from you? Not everybody wants to be big but to be able to grow without the worry of being taxed unnecessarily or having another industry reach into your pockets and devalue something you've spent your entire career in life building," said Weingart.

Goldman said HB 3287 does not require any new taxes.

"Even if a craft brewery is purchased and required to operate via the 3-tier system, the fees are an established part of the system and unrelated to HB3287's intent and purpose," said Goldman.

Rick Donley, President of The Beer Alliance of Texas said in a statement on May 24, 2017:

“HB 3287 passed by both the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate, ensures that exemptions intended for small craft brewers do not transfer to global or larger brewing manufacturers. Unlike in other states Texas craft brewers will not suffer the inequity of large manufacturers acquiring market share and taking advantage of state exemptions intended to boost small craft brewers.

Small craft brewers who decide to sell or partner with a larger manufacturer (over 2.4 million cases of beer per year) will relinquish their exemption status and operate through the distribution and retail tiers like all other large manufacturers.

It is important to note that provisions of HB 3287 only impact brewers with production of greater than 2.4 million cases of beer per year. Ninety-seven percent of all US craft brewers produce less than 205,500 cases of beer per year.”

Local distributing companies have said this bill will not affect them yet if it is approved.

“House Bill 3287 is designed to help protect distributors from losing cases sold by breweries that have local taprooms and provide the beer themselves. At this time, Kristen Distributing Company is not affected by this bill since none of the brands that we distribute have local taprooms within the area," said Adrian Gobeli with Kristen Distributing Company.

Charles Vallhonrat, the executive director of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, said the group has been collecting signatures on a petition asking Governor Abbott to veto the bill.

He said other plans are in action as well to continue to fight the bill being made into a law.

“We have a lot of work going on at the capitol. We are talking with Governor Abbott’s team. We’ve written letters with legal arguments, pointing out issues with the bill. There’s a lot of other works happening to bring attention to concerns with the bill," said Vallhonrat.

So far, they have collected about 13,000 signatures. Once they hit 15,000, they plan on taking it to the desk of the governor.