(1) No one ships to TX, at least not legally
(2) Stores that sell beer and liquor have to close by 9pm, and stay closed all day Sunday. Grocery stores, etc., that don't sell liquor can't sell beer on Sundays until after 12.
(3) Companies that want to distribute their beer here from out of state have to purchase an expensive license to do so, which therefore means a LOT of companies don't distribute their beer here!
(4) Labeling is a huge pain in the ass for local brewers - TABC has to approve all labels, the process is extremely slow, and I know it used to be more stringent than it is now in terms of what exactly could be written on bottles.
(5) Breweries can't sell their own beer on-site: 3-tier system. So you can go to a brewery and sample their beer, but if you want to buy some, you have to then go to a store and buy it.
There's a lot more, but I'm starting to get angry just typing these......
this was taken off of beer advocate. #5 is a really stupid one. you can go to the hill country and tour vineyards all day long and pound glass after glass of 14% abv wine plus buy cases on cases to take home but you cant go to a brewery and buy a couple glasses of 6% abv beer and take home some bottles.
i know i go to Jester King and do just that but they are an exception and their cost for being able to do this is that they can no longer expand their production facility. This means that if you want their stuff, you have to make a trip to Austin. They do have a couple bottles that are available for extremely limited distribution statewide but those are not the Jester Kings that people actively look for.
