Small breweries are celebrating a issued yesterday that strikes down state regulations limiting what beer makers can say about their products. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks鈥� makes three changes to Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) rules:
- Brewers can now advertise the alcohol content of their beers on their websites and promotional materials.
- Brewers can now also advertise where you can buy their products.
- Brewers are no longer required to label any beer that is 0.5 to 4 percent alcohol as 鈥渂eer鈥� and they are no longer required to label anything above 4 percent as 鈥渁le鈥� or 鈥渕alt liquor.鈥�
鈥淎le and beer are not mutually exclusive categories. Ale is one type of beer,鈥� said Ron Extract with Austin-based brewer , one of the plaintiffs in the suit. 鈥淚t really has nothing to do with alcohol content.鈥�
鈥淭he regulations regarding use of terminology were really unique in Texas,鈥� Extract said.
Interestingly, Judge Sparks鈥� ruling for barely making its case in court, referring to TABC鈥檚 lawyers鈥� 鈥渃andid admission in open court that the State submitted virtually no summary judgment evidence鈥� and therefore Sparks said he granted the plaintiff鈥檚 motion 鈥渁lmost by default.鈥�
However, beer makers were not able to convince the court that they should be able to sell beer to customers on-site.
