Following a week of tense negotiations, a divided beer industry reached a compromise Monday on legislation to amend the state's alcoholic beverage code, beating a deadline set by state Sen. , R-Dallas, the Senate Business and Commerce Committee chairman. But the parties aren't disclosing any details until the official language is hammered out this week.
鈥淲hen I started working on this four years ago, no one would listen to me,鈥� Scott Metzger, the legislative chairman of the Craft Brewers Guild, which is pushing to loosen restrictions on small brewpubs in the state. 鈥淭oday, we have a deal.鈥�
The Business and Commerce Committee tasked beer interest groups to come to a compromise on legislation last Tuesday to adjust the alcoholic beverage code, the state鈥檚 three-tiered system that regulates the production, distribution and retail sales of beer separately.
Sen. , R-Tyler, filed a package of bills in February that would allow brewpubs to self-distribute to retailers and to sell directly to customers on their premises. The Beer Alliance of Texas, a lobbying group that represents beer distributors and some craft brews, supported the legislation, but the Wholesale Beer Distributors, another lobbying group, disagreed with the expansion.
Carona filed , which would make several complex changes to the code, including severability and reach-back pricing, to 鈥渕ake sure all the interests are at the table to discuss this,鈥� he said at a hearing last Tuesday. The measure has the support of the Wholesale Beer Distributors.
Emails to Carona's office weren't immediately returned.
Metzger, who owns Freetail Brewing, a San Antonio craft brewery, said it was a 鈥渧ery stressful鈥� week in Austin, but Carona and Sen. , D-San Antonio, were 鈥渧ery effective in bringing a lot of people with disparate views to the table.鈥�
