AUSTIN - Houston-based Karbach Brewing Co. on Tuesday told state lawmakers that its plans to build new breweries around the state are imperiled by a proposal to change the way Texas breweries operate their taprooms after exceeding a state-set size limit.

Houston-based Karbach was considering opening satellite breweries with taprooms in at least some of the eight metro areas it believes could support one, general manager David Greenwood said. The moves, he said, were part of Karbach's longer-term plans before it was acquired last fall by Anheuser-Busch InBev and they were part of the discussions leading up to the deal.

An AB-InBev representative estimated Karbach would have spent $6 million to $8 million on each of the new facilities. But a bill that was approved overwhelmingly by the Texas House on Saturday would halt those expansion plans by moving Karbach into a category of larger breweries by virtue of its new corporate ownership, Greenwood explained.

That bill is now before the Senate Business & Commerce Committee, which hosted testimony Tuesday.

The state's wholesale beer distributors pushing the bill say it is designed to help smaller craft breweries from being overwhelmed by AB-InBev and other conglomerates by not granting them exceptions to the state's three-tier system.

Keith Strama, counsel for the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas, said the measure is critical to prevent large, vertically integrated global breweries from becoming too powerful. Afterward, Strama acknowledged the difference of opinion but said the existing system, which gives distributors almost total control over how beer moves from producer to retailers, is the "best possible environment to protect small craft breweries."

The brewers in attendance Tuesday snorted at that logic, insisting they never asked for such help and noting that they are unified in opposition.

"I don't need this protection, if someone wants to call it that," Chip McElroy, founder/owner of Austin's Live Oak Brewing Co., said in response. "In fact, I'd call it taking my property."

McElroy said he hopes to one day be large enough, through growth and perhaps making acquisitions of his own, to exceed the production limit.

The wholesalers have often fought legislative efforts favored by craft brewers. Four years ago, however, they agreed to a compromise measure that allows those making less than 225,000 barrels of beer annually to sell up to 5,000 barrels in their own taprooms, directly to customers.

The new bill responds to large-brewery takeovers that have occurred since the 2013 legislation by expanding the size limit to any company whose corporate parent or partner breweries combine to produce that much beer.

Karbach, for example, currently produces fewer than 100,000 barrels. But AB-InBev produces many millions of barrels of Budweiser, Bud Light and other brands across the globe.

The bill originally would have forced Karbach and the others to shutter their taprooms. A revised version allowed them to continue operating them, but it would require breweries above the limit to first sell their beer to a distributor and buy it back - at a markup of around 30 percent - before selling it on site.

In addition, Greenwood said the 5,000-barrel limit on taproom sales would be spread among any potential new Karbach facilities, rather than given to each separately.

The small brewers and the Texas Craft Brewers Guild say the bill would discourage investors from supplying capital to fuel growth and penalize breweries that eventually grow to that level.

The bill initially would affect only a handful, including Independence Brewing Co. The Austin brewery currently produces around 20,000 barrels annually, but it sold a non-controlling stake last summer to an investment arm of California's Lagunitas Brewing Co.

Lagunitas recently announced it was being acquired by Heineken, the global brand.

Amy Cartwright, who co-founded Independence with her husband in Austin in 2004, said having to pay a premium for her own beer to sell on site would leave her with unattractive choices.

Independence would either pass along the price increase to customers or reduce its taproom hours, currently four days a week, to reduce the amount of less-profitable beer it sells.

In addition to the impact on consumers, she said, it would also hurt Independence's marketing efforts.

Since the taproom sales were approved by the 2013 Legislature, Cartwright said, sales have grown at an average rate of 30 percent annually. She attributes that at least in part to the expanded exposure the company has gotten through on-site sales.

Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, a national trade group, said the proposal sounds like a regression for a place that ranks near the bottom of states in terms of breweries per capita. Senate Bill 2083, identical to the House measure approved Saturday, "could be a bit of a backward step after some steps forward four years ago," Gatza said.

The Business & Commerce Committee also took testimony on a bill proposed by state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, to allow craft breweries to sell to-go beer on site. Buckingham told committee members that Texas is the only state in the U.S. that does not currently allow such sales. Wineries and distilleries here also have that right.

Strama and Rick Donley, president of the state's other major wholesalers group, the Beer Alliance of Texas, both voiced their opposition to that measure.