Looking for Rodeo Clown in Austin

Specs is probably your best bet. I think they get their shipments from internal distribution from Houston.

Karbach does not officially distribute cans/bottles up to Austin yet.

 

Not related to the topic, but is it not illegal for Specs to do that? I assumed it was.

 

I have never seen Rodeo Clown cans in Austin but I have seen several others.

 

There is no problem in doing this in other states, so it is probably illegal in Texas.

 

It would be for breweries that are not in TX. Karbach likely has a self distribution license which would cover all of TX. So, Specs can buy beer from Karbach and sell it in other counties legally as Karbach owns the rights for those counties even if they do not distribute really there.

But, if your brewery is not in TX, you would not have a self distribution license. So, you have to go through a distributor who would only own certain counties. So, like when New Holland comes out only in DFW, a beer store cannot drive up to Dallas and buy it from a distributor as they do not own Travis county (for example). But, a beer store can drive up to Dallas and buy Community and sell it in Austin since Community has a self distribution license already.

Now, I could be mistaken how it works once they have a distributor for a region, though. So, what I have said could be void. I know Specs WAS selling Karbach in Austin previously, but that was before they were picked up by a distributor for this region. Their self distribution could end for a county once a distributor jointly owns that county. Maybe someone can correct me on that.

 

I'm not gonna read the tl;dr. Sorry if repeating. Specs stores can only self-distribute within same county.

 

Spec's has had Karbach cans up in Austin for some time. Let's just say Karbach did not deliver them up here.

So, they showed up somehow. I am guessing the rules are different for TX breweries with self distribution licenses.

Same thing with Austin Beerworks - it has been in some Houston Specs.

 

I believe Scott at Specs Round Rock told me once it was illegal to transfer beer over county lines. I'd asked why he couldn't transfer Beerworks from a Specs in Austin up to RR before ABW had started to distro there.

 

This is entirely my own speculation:

Spec's does not have a distribution license to transfer beer across county lines for beer that has been purchased.

However, let's say that the Spec's Transfer Truck was to go pick up some beer from Karbach's brewery and take it to a Spec's in a different county. In this hypothetical situation, Spec's can only deliver that beer if it was not paid for theretofore and Karbach has invoiced it specifically for this "other-county Spec's". Furthermore, Karbach (or any brewery with auto-distribution rights) can drop beer off at Spec's Smith Street and, if it is not invoiced for Smith Street and not received/paid for, the Spec's transfer truck can pick up from the store and deliver it another (the store that should be on the invoice) where it will be received.

All this works only if, as others have speculated, a local distributor doesn't have Karbach in their portfolio. Since Silver Eagle distributes Karbach to San Antonio, Spec's could not use this method for a delivery to Bexar County. But for smaller, local breweries who aren't working with a larger distributor, this is a totally viable and legal method of distributing beer using Spec's existing transfer infrastructure.

I think.

 

That clarified on what I was thinking.

Since Karbach has been picked up in Austin (Keg1 was it?), then I doubt it is in the stores anymore for now.

 

Brown. Keg1 was H&G.

 

Brown has the money and the means to promote all of the craft brands they've been picking up, but I don't recall anyone actually being in to craft beer when I worked there. All of the sales guys at BEK seemed to be pretty in to it.

 

I know one guy that works for Brown. He is into craft beer. But, that is why I know him...so, I doubt many others are.

 

I saw a karbach truck going down 71 from bastrop going in the direction of austin when going to work a few months ago. Maybe they make the trip themselves?

 

Was it the Weekend Warrior truck? I saw them delivering a bunch of kegs to Whole Foods downtown once, but that was months ago. If they have signed with someone for distro, then, like others have said, it may take a while for their stuff to show back up in the area.

 

They were self-distributing kegs to Austin for a while but never brought up packaged beer.

All the stuff Specs had was due to having a Specs in Houston.

 

It's already back in the area. It just is not packaged beer yet...solely kegs. They plan on getting packaged goods here soon enough.

 

I know you asked about cans, but the Growler Room on Burnet has it on right now for $18/64oz. And the guy there said that Karbach told them cans/bottles were coming to Austin starting in January 2015.