Austin Chronicle By Eric Puga Mar. 7, 2019
Proposed Flow Meter Bill could burden craft breweries
The small brewers and wholesale distributors of Texas went from business frenemies to pals when, about three weeks ago, the Texas Craft Brewers Guild and The Beer Alliance of Texas (TBAT) announced an historic stakeholder agreement.
The proposed new version of the bipartisan bill supports beer-to-go from manufacturing breweries, a nutty scheme that would help to sustain the business-end of an exciting, consumer-driven, local industry to the benefit of both parties. The problem, however, is that TBAT is only one of the trade associations that represents Texas’ Big Distro lobby. Beer-to-go critics and obvious Boss Hogg cosplayers, the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas (WBDT), refused to endorse the mid-February arrangement that would allow craft brewers to sell directly to consumers.
Now, sources have disclosed that the WBDT intends to file a separate – and what could be interpreted as retaliatory – bill by the 2019 legislative deadline on Friday, March 8. The new bill would demand craft brewers install a flow meter onto their brite tanks to measure the amount of beer produced against the amount of excise tax a brewery is paying federally. The concern is about protecting tax revenue, and the feds want to make sure a brewery does not evade taxes by serving untaxed beer or miscalculating how much beer they are producing.
More:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/food/2019-03-07/wholesale-beer-distributors-of-texas-plan-to-continue-their-antics/
