(Photo: Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold Brewing, involved in helping latest TX small brewery bill before it was squashed – Credit: Dave77459 on Flickr)

A summary of some of the legislative happenings around the country…

Illinois: The Illinois House (nearly) unanimously passed a bill to help small production breweries self-distribute. Brewpubs appear to be getting a raw deal though.

Per the Guys Drinking Beer Blog, “If a production brewery wants to self-distribute they would have to get a ‘Craft Brewer’ license. To qualify for the license they must brew less than 15,000 barrels of beer a year. If they qualify for the license they would then be able to self-distribute up to 7,500 barrels of beer a year. The language is a bit different for brewpubs, though. They would also have to meet the barrel limit requirements for the ‘Craft Brewer’ license but they would also have to build a second production facility in order to self-distribute. The last requirement is what has caused the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, the original authors of the legislation, to remain ‘reluctantly opposed’ to the measure.”

Texas: Small breweries recently found themselves in the crossfire between AB-InBev and local wholesalers.

The Houston Chronicle reports, “The latest effort by Texas’ small craft brewers to bolster their business by letting people leave tours with a six-pack or two is dead. The final, unresolvable conflict was a last-minute objection by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer company. The Belgium-based conglomerate, which brews Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob and other high-volume beers in breweries in Houston and elsewhere, opposed a provision in the bill that would have denied large manufacturers the ability to offer the take-home beers.”

Per The Dallas Observer, “But the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas (WBDT) perceived this as a threat to the three-tier system and demanded an amendment so that the bill would only apply to breweries producing a maximum of 75,000 barrels annually, which excluded Anheuser-Busch InBev. Never mind that Anheuser-Busch does not offer tours.”

Wisconsin: The Journal-Sentinel reported last week about a potential change that could affect small breweries…

“Pending legislation that would prohibit brewers from buying wholesale beer distributors in Wisconsin is raising concerns among the state’s smaller craft brewers. […]

Under current state law, a brewer that wants to sell beer directly to retailers without using wholesale distributors must obtain a wholesale license. The proposed legislation would create just one permit for brewing and selling beer, which would streamline the licensing process, Roby said.

The proposal also would prohibit brewers from buying wholesale distributorships, while allowing brewers to do their own wholesale distribution of up to 300,000 barrels annually, said Roby and Pete Marino, a spokesman for Chicago-based MillerCoors. The current law allows brewers to self-distribute up to 50,000 barrels annually, Marino said.”

Also see BBLodge and Madison Beer Review coverage.

Alabama: Remember the fiasco that took place back in late April? Well, one of the bills that Free the Hops was fighting for, the Brewery Modernization Act, passed in the Senate yesterday.

Per the Aleheads blog, “The bill allows breweries to have taprooms on premises and for brewpubs to sell beer off-premises (through a licensed distributor). It’s another step towards craft beer freedom in Alabama and we have Free the Hops to thank for the bill’s passage.”

See Free the Hops coverage.

Ohio: The state may consider lifting the ABV cap up to 18%.

Tennessee: Some overhauls have been made to the state’s liquor laws. Chief among them is properly defining high alcohol content beer. The changes clear the way for Sierra Nevada to look into a location near Knoxville that it has been eyeing.

An update on the latest legal briefs around the U.S.A. will be available from The Brewers Association in mid-late June. Until then, here is the May update from a couple weeks ago.