E-Malt.com News article: USA, TX: Freetail Brewing to expand in San Antonio

Freetail Brewing Co., which will celebrate its third anniversary beginning November, 25, plans what founder and CEO Scott Metzger is characterizing as the San Antonio establishment’s largest expansion of its brewing facilities to date, San Antonio Business Journal reported on November, 16.

Metzger says the brew pub will install a new bottling line later this year.

Currently, Texas brew pubs are legally prohibited from selling their beer to wholesalers and distributors. They are, however, permitted to sell packaged products directly to consumers on their premises.

Metzger helped spearhead an effort during the 2011 Texas Legislative session to try and change the law prohibiting off-premise sales by brew pubs.

But House Bill 660 never made it out of the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee.

Now, however, Metzger hopes to get a jump on the competition, should Texas lawmakers ever ditch the antiquated legislation that has hamstrung the state’s handcraft brewers.

“Eventually, the laws unfairly restricting Texas businesses in favor of out-of-state brew pubs will change and Freetail’s creations will be available at grocery stores, restaurants and bars,” he says. “In the meantime, we can really expand on our current bottling operations which have proven to be extremely popular.”

Freetail has hand-bottled some of its craft beers on a limited basis previously.

“Of the five bottle releases we’ve done in 2011, every single one has sold out almost instantly,” Metzger explains. “That tells us people want more.”

Metzger would not reveal specifics regarding the new bottling line. He would say, however, that the line, which is expected to be completed sometime in December, will have the capacity to service off-premise sales opportunities once state lawmakers drop the current restrictions, allowing the company to market to distributors.


18 November, 2011