Business license applications led to a crop of new breweries in Texas

Twitter and Facebook postings alerted Ronnie Crocker, who covers beer for the Houston Chronicle, that some new craft breweries were about to join the scene.

He checked the data on Texas breweries and took a look at how it stacked up against growth among mass-produced brands.

Crocker writes:

“The growth spurt is likely to continue. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission lists nine pending license applications for breweries and active licenses for two others not yet open.

“This boom comes despite a slump in the overall U.S. beer market. The major producers are hurting and sales of imports are down, but craft-beer sales keep going up. With $7 billion in annual sales, craft beer represents a sliver of U.S. beer production. But the segment grew by 9 percent in terms of volume sales during the first half of this year, the Brewers Association trade group reports, even as the overall beer market declined by 2.7 percent.”

Ronnie says he got a lot of data from the Brewers Association.

Ronnie Crocker, Houston Chronicle

“The most important decision is what to leave out,” he says. “Make sure that the ones you choose [to keep] are pushing the story along and making the point you’re trying to make and really illustrating the trend.”

Today’s Tip: Check with licensing agencies to see what businesses may be opening soon.

Ronnie says he’d heard rumors about new craft breweries opening up. To confirm what he was hearing, he went to the state liquor board, called the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and found information about pending applications.

“That really told the story because through that I was able to get starting dates, and to show that 11 more [breweries] out there had at least gotten as far as license applications,” Ronnie says.