Has anyone ever tried to bring a large bottle of your own beer to a restaurant and pay a corkage fee to serve it at the table? You think they would let you bring a growler?
I’ve brought beers to a bunch of BYO’s. I use to feel weird walking in with a small cooler bag with 4-5beers in it, but no one ever cared. Now that I’m kegging, I bring growlers. Again, never had an issue.
Depends on your local laws - in Texas, carrying a growler of homebrew into any establishment with an alcoholic beverage license (beer/wine or spirits) is illegal.
I never understood how that law worked. When I lived in Dallas our local homebrew club used to meet at a local bar for our club meetings and we always brought in homebrew and even held judging for the club only competition many times at the establishment. Maybe we were just breaking the law and the bar didn’t care? Or is it different if its a beer only bar that does not serve hard liquor?
[quote=“mtodd”]Maybe we were just breaking the law and the bar didn’t care? Or is it different if its a beer only bar that does not serve hard liquor?[/quote]It’s up the the TABC to enforce the law and since they aren’t, no one seems to care about it too much or even be aware that it’s illegal. Here’s the relevant section:
Sec. 109.22. DELIVERY OF HOME-PRODUCED WINE, ALE, MALT LIQUOR, OR BEER FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES. (a) This section applies only to a person who is authorized under Section 109.21(a) to produce wine, ale, malt liquor, or beer.
(b) For the purpose of participating in an organized tasting, evaluation, competition, or literary review, a person to whom this section applies may deliver wine, ale, malt liquor, or beer produced and manufactured by the person to locations that are not licensed under this code for the purpose of submitting those products to an evaluation at an organized tasting competition that is closed to the general public or by a reviewer whose reviews are published if:
(1) no charge of any kind is made for the wine, ale, malt liquor, or beer, for its delivery, or for attendance at the event; and
(2) the commission consents in writing to the delivery.
I underlined the two interesting bits - the first shows that it’s any business with any type of license and the second (which no one pays attention too either) says that you have to have permission to do tastings, etc., in writing.
