In this great state we often come to blows with the elected politicians that represent us and in our case, Texas hasn’t received the best light. Hopefully the new beer laws signed by Governor Rick Perry this week will bring a new praise and hopefully an intoxicating tourism to Texas.
This week the new law went into effect that would let local breweries sell beer directly to the public. So does this mean you can head to your nearest brewery and pick up a sixer? Well not quite. What it means is that you can now buy some of the freshest beer in Texas to enjoy while on the premise of the brewery. In the past, you would visit a local brewery and pay for a tour and get a few free samples with a keepsake glass. Now I can only imagine the tours will be free and you can buy pints to your heart’s content, provided you have a designated driver of course.
As for now there hasn’t been much talk of how many of the breweries will now handle tours. Whether a tour will be free with no samples or charge with a flight afterwards is still to be seen but giving the breweries the opportunity to make some profit by selling beer to its tourist will help growth in a big way.
Lennie Ambrose from Saint Arnold Brewery said they will keep tours the same but they will be adding some additional changes from time to time. No Label Brewery in Katy posted on their Facebook account that their Saturday Tasting/Tours from noon-3pm for $5 will stay the same but starting Friday July, 12th they will be open every Friday from 4-7pm selling pints of beer for on premise consumption. Jester King Brewery stated in a press release that they will no longer be charging for tours. This will give their customers the option to buy as they please.
Now that the taps are flowing at your local brewery be sure to stop by and thank them for all their hard work by buying a hand crafted pint. Here is a big salute to the men and women that brew beer here in Texas and to those that fought to see these laws changed. Cheers!
