Bill could bring big change to how Texans get their craft beer

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A controversial proposed bill has hop heads split in the future of craft beer in Texas.

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A controversial proposed bill has hop heads split in the future of craft beer in Texas.

Click through to see Houston's most popular beer gardens. Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Bill could bring big change to how Texans get their craft beer 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that has some craft beer lovers split.

House Bill 3287 and Senate Bill 2083 would prohibit tap rooms from selling to the public if their brewery — or affiliated companies and partners — sold more than 225,000 barrels statewide. Current law only covers production at the specific brewery.

Now those in the beer industry are intensely debating whether such a move would hurt the craft beer industry in Texas.

Ken Goodman, the founder of Houston-based Karbach Brewing, recently voiced his opinion on HoustonChronicle.com, arguing that "prohibiting tap rooms will crush craft beer."

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"This arbitrary limit on production would change the rules in the middle of the game and have drastic ramifications for our business and 190 other Texas craft brewers," Goodman wrote. "In a state that values free markets and fair competition, this legislation is absolutely un-Texan and is opposed by large and small brewers alike."

Goodman argues that the proposed bill would make it more difficult for craft brewers to expand their consumer reach or market footprint by barring them from partnering with other larger beer companies that sell much more than 225,000 barrels a year.

Last year, Karbach Brewing was purchased by Anheuser-BuschInBev, a multi-billion dollar brewing company. Goodman said the acquisition by the brewing giant allowed them to grow the Karbach footprint far beyond state lines.

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Kevin Floyd, a managing partner at craft beer bar Hay Merchant, argues the opposite and explains his support for the bill in another opinion piece on HoustonChronicle.com.

"In a nutshell, these bills would serve to protect small Texas brewers by keeping large, foreign-owned mega brewers from entering into a market segment that was created to help the small, independent, Texas-owned brewers grow," Floyd wrote.

Floyd believes that the law now in place allows for a "wolf-in-sheep's-clothing" approach by large brewing companies.

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"The authors of the original bill didn't realize that large, foreign-owned mega brewers could buy a Texas craft brewery producing under 225,000 barrels and use it as a vehicle to undermine true Texas craft brewers," Floyd wrote. "With the recent sell-outs of independent craft breweries such as Houston's own Karbach Brewing, this loophole could be used to attack Texas-owned independents."

Beer giants AB InBev and Molson Coors control approximately 90 percent of domestic beer production, according to a recent piece in The New York Times. In recent years these multinational companies have bought up craft brewers like Karbach, Granbury's Revolver Brewing and Athens, Ga.'s Terrapin. Many drinkers who do not closely follow craft beer news may not know about the purchases.

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