Houston Brewery Saint Arnold, named for one of the patron saints of brewing, is trying to persuade the Texas legislature to change the state laws regarding the sale of beer at breweries. Under current law, breweries cannot sell packaged beer at the very place where it’s brewed and bottled.
CEO Brock Wagner said of his intentions, “if we succeed with our law change, [we’ll be] able to sell six-packs to people when they visit the brewery.” That doesn’t seem too unreasonable, but the strangeness of alcohol laws cannot be underestimated, nor can many state’s reluctance to take any progressive steps that could be interpreted as endorsing, supporting or — gasp — encouraging adults to engage in legally permissible activities. As a result of neo-prohibitionist agitation and activism, few alcohol laws have been relaxed or modernized in recent years. It will be interesting to see if Wagner and Saint Arnold can be successful.