CANarchy wins challenge to Texas ABC statute over limits on brewery production sizes for direct from taproom “beer-to-go” sales based on a statutory construction resulting from poor legislative drafting.
CANarchy brought two challenges to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code’s 225,000 barrel cap on brewery “beer-to-go” sales. The relevant portions of the statute authorize breweries in Texas to sell beer-to-go, provided they have a production rate below 225,000 barrels annually. This right was only recently added in 2019. The language of the statute empowering these “beer-to-go” sales reads:
[T]he holder of a brewer’s permit whose annual production of ale, together with the annual production of beer by the holder of a manufacturer’s license at all premises wholly or partly owned, directly or indirectly, by the permit holder or an affiliate…