AUSTIN — Texas on Saturday joined the rest of the nation when Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law letting adults buy beer to go from home-grown craft breweries.

Smaller brewpubs already can sell beer to go. Abbott's action means that beginning on Sept. 1, the state's giving that right to breweries, too.

More than 15,000 people endorsed the expansion in an online petition.

"Here is a toast to freedom itself in the Lone Star State," Abbott said as he hoisted a "Pearl-Snap," a German-style pils, at a signing ceremony at the Austin Beerworks brewery in North Austin.

I just signed a law allowing “Beer-to-Go” in Texas.



It allows you to take home beer from Craft Breweries in Texas.



Enjoy responsibly.



Thanks #txlege #beer pic.twitter.com/qDRkZgS9m6 — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 15, 2019

The broadening of "beer to go" is part of House Bill 1545, a far-ranging bill that, on its face, renews the role of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The Republican governor said the bill also reduces "burdensome regulations" on the beer and wine industry. The bill also streamlines licenses and permits required for businesses that sell alcohol and removes some fees.

Most notably, it expands the number of liquor store permits that an individual can own, getting rid of a loophole that favored blood connections. However, publicly traded companies like Walmart, Costco, Walgreens and Kroger still won't be permitted to sell liquor in Texas. That issue's now pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Also, a push to amend HB 1545 to let stores sell wine and beer on Sundays starting at 10 a.m. rather than noon failed, as did a separate proposal to allow liquor sales on Sundays.

The bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. Brian Birdwell, thanked beer-to-go supporters who signed petitions and called their lawmakers.

"You brought the political will to the combat power to get this done," said Birdwell, a Granbury Republican.

Beer-to-go bill

The battle over beer to go was one of the recently completed session's most dramatic tiffs. State law considers small brewpubs "retailers" and lets them sell beer to take home. But such sales are verboten for brewers, now considered "manufacturers."

As time grew short in the session, the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas declined to respond to questions from The Dallas Morning News about why it opposed a standalone bill backed by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild and another distributors' group, the Beer Alliance of Texas.

The guild questioned why 49 other states allow breweries to sell product to go, but Texas doesn't. The guild organized an online petition supporting an expansion.

But the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas evidently didn't like the prospect of consumers directly taking beer home from a brewery, diverting revenue from distributors.

However, when the so-called sunset bill for the Alcoholic Beverage Commission hit the House floor on April 25, Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, unsuccessfully sought to fend off a change desired by Fort Worth's GOP Rep. Charlie Geren, who heads the powerful House Administration Committee.

Beer-to-go proponents Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, and Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, celebrated beer-to-go's passage by the Texas Senate late last month. (Rep. Eddie Rodriguez)

That opened the floodgates to successful amendments allowing earlier beer and wine sales on Sunday and sales by breweries of beer to go — up to two cases per person per day. Beer to go only narrowly survived opponents' request for "verification" that members actually were present on the House floor.

In early May, the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas and the craft brewers' guild struck a deal. The agreed-upon amendment caps brewery sales at one case per person per day.

The Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas also broke its silence. Larry Del Papa, its president, said in a statement to The News: "In order to help passage of the TABC 'sunset' bill, we agreed to negotiate a more reasonable beer-to-go carve out."

The Senate added the agreed-upon language to its version of the sunset bill.

Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, initially filed a beer-to-go bill in the House and helped broker the deal between the industry leaders.

"To some longtime observers of Texas politics, passing Beer-to-Go was the underdog victory of the 86th legislative session," he wrote in an email blast to constituents on Monday.