The Texas State House of Representatives on April 26 voted to pass House Bill 1545, a piece of legislation that allows the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to continue to operate with attached reforms.
During discussion of the bill, two amendments were attached and approved. One, written by State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, allows craft breweries to sell beer to-go at their sites. Currently, state law prohibits production breweries from selling six-packs or other forms of beer to-go sales to visitors.
Several craft breweries in Austin have taken to social media to celebrate the legislation and urge customers to voice support for Beer-to-Go legislation.
Today was a huge win for Texas breweries. Still a long way to go, but we're farther than we've ever been. Stay tuned for details. #BeerToGo #txlege
— Austin Beerworks (@AustinBeerworks) April 26, 2019
Huge moment for equitable commerce rights for small businesses in Texas. You can buy spirits to go (Deep Eddy, Garrison Bros, etc) and Wine (Becker, Etc) at taproom, But NOT beer from production breweries. 49 states allow this. Not Texas... yet... #txlege #BeertoGo https://t.co/yNhpH0XAwt
— Hi Sign Brewing (@HiSignBrewing) April 26, 2019
We are here to support the common sense legislative action to allow breweries to sell Texans beer to take home. https://t.co/w2zTESVh7U
— Zilker Brewing Co (@ZilkerBeer) April 25, 2019
The other amendment attached to HB 1545, written by Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, allows beer and wine carriers to begin selling at 10 a.m. on Sundays. Existing laws prohibit retailers from selling beer and wine before noon on Sundays.