The legislative effort to give small breweries a boost by allowing them to sell a limited amount of beer directly to the public appears to have gone flat, but the bill’s sponsor is making a last-minute push to save it.

With just a month remaining before lawmakers adjourn, the bill remains bottled up in the same House committee where a similar measure died in 2007. The chairman of that committee on Thursday gave the bill a “50-50” chance of making it out in time to get scheduled for a vote by the end of the session.

“I will look at it and see what the will of the committee is,” said state Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, who chairs the nine-member Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee. He explained that if four other members agree to support the bill, he would vote to move it along as well.

“I would not hold it in committee,” Kuempel said.

However, no vote on the bill was scheduled by late Thursday, and time is running short. The bill would have to be out and cleared by the Calendars Committee by May 14 if it is to have any chance before the session ends June 1.

State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who sponsored the legislation in 2007 and again this year, said she has the necessary four votes and late in the day got a commitment from Kuempel. She said he was scheduling the vote.

She said the bill appears to have encountered stiff opposition “behind the scenes.”

Earlier Thursday, Licensing committee member Charles Geren, R-Fort Worth, recalled there was opposition when the bill was introduced for discussion, but he said he did not remember where it came from. He said he would “probably vote for” Farrar’s bill but referred questions about its status to Kuempel.

Brock Wagner, the Saint Arnold Brewing Co. founder who joined other craft brewers in personally appealing to state lawmakers, said the opposition undoubtedly came from the powerful Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas, which has successfully fought past efforts.

“Oh, no question,” Wagner said.

A call to the distributors’ organization was not returned.

Though the bill concerns alcohol, Farrar and Wagner agreed that the opposition has nothing to do with moral issues. Rather, the fight is over the lucrative distribution network that moves beer from the factory to bar taps and store shelves.

In the existing three-tier system, distributors are the exclusive middlemen.

An attempted compromise, Farrar’s bill would apply to small breweries such as Saint Arnold in Houston, Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco and Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. in Fort Worth, which produce fewer than 250,000 barrels per year, but not to such brewing giants as Anheuser-Busch InBev. It also would limit how much beer could be sold on-site.

Basically, it would allow the small brewers to sell a few six-packs at the conclusion of brewery tours, as wineries already do. The bill has been promoted as a way to increase brand awareness, which would particularly help brewers just starting up.

The Licensing committee’s vice chair, state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, agreed that there might still be time this session. Otherwise, supporters will give it another go in 2011.

Farrar said the Texas distributors fear any change to the three-tier system would open a “Pandora’s box.”

Wagner said he would not at all want to see the current system dismantled, just tweaked in a way that he thinks would ultimately benefit all brewers.

ronnie.crocker@chron.com

The legislative effort to give small breweries a boost by allowing them to sell a limited amount of beer directly to the public appears to have gone flat, but the bill’s sponsor is making a last-minute push to save it.

With just a month remaining before lawmakers adjourn, the bill remains bottled up in the same House committee where a similar measure died in 2007. The chairman of that committee on Thursday gave the bill a “50-50” chance of making it out in time to get scheduled for a vote by the end of the session.

“I will look at it and see what the will of the committee is,” said state Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, who chairs the nine-member Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee. He explained that if four other members agree to support the bill, he would vote to move it along as well.

“I would not hold it in committee,” Kuempel said.

However, no vote on the bill was scheduled by late Thursday, and time is running short. The bill would have to be out and cleared by the Calendars Committee by May 14 if it is to have any chance before the session ends June 1.

State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who sponsored the legislation in 2007 and again this year, said she has the necessary four votes and late in the day got a commitment from Kuempel. She said he was scheduling the vote.

She said the bill appears to have encountered stiff opposition “behind the scenes.”

Earlier Thursday, Licensing committee member Charles Geren, R-Fort Worth, recalled there was opposition when the bill was introduced for discussion, but he said he did not remember where it came from. He said he would “probably vote for” Farrar’s bill but referred questions about its status to Kuempel.

Brock Wagner, the Saint Arnold Brewing Co. founder who joined other craft brewers in personally appealing to state lawmakers, said the opposition undoubtedly came from the powerful Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas, which has successfully fought past efforts.

“Oh, no question,” Wagner said.

A call to the distributors’ organization was not returned.

Though the bill concerns alcohol, Farrar and Wagner agreed that the opposition has nothing to do with moral issues. Rather, the fight is over the lucrative distribution network that moves beer from the factory to bar taps and store shelves.

In the existing three-tier system, distributors are the exclusive middlemen.

An attempted compromise, Farrar’s bill would apply to small breweries such as Saint Arnold in Houston, Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco and Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. in Fort Worth, which produce fewer than 250,000 barrels per year, but not to such brewing giants as Anheuser-Busch InBev. It also would limit how much beer could be sold on-site.

Basically, it would allow the small brewers to sell a few six-packs at the conclusion of brewery tours, as wineries already do. The bill has been promoted as a way to increase brand awareness, which would particularly help brewers just starting up.

The Licensing committee’s vice chair, state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, agreed that there might still be time this session. Otherwise, supporters will give it another go in 2011.

Farrar said the Texas distributors fear any change to the three-tier system would open a “Pandora’s box.”

Wagner said he would not at all want to see the current system dismantled, just tweaked in a way that he thinks would ultimately benefit all brewers.

ronnie.crocker@chron.com