The thought that distilleries or breweries could permanently close due to COVID-19 restrictions saddens the owner of Ranger Creek Brewing and Distillery.
“It will be our 10th year anniversary this December but it's a weird time to be celebrating 10 years in business,” said Dennis Rylander whose brewer distillery is in San Antonio. “Local distilleries and breweries like ours support the local community a lot more than the macro breweries and macro distillers do.”
Rylander made his comments in response to the Texas Whiskey Association announcing that it anticipates 33% of distilleries will close if Texas does not change its pandemic rules.
“We’re a brewery and a distillery so a lot of our sales go to bars and restaurants through our distributor, but right now we’re not able to sell anything to on-premise establishments anymore,” Rylander told the Lone Star Standard.
That’s because Gov. Greg Abbott closed all bars in an effort to curb a sudden increase in coronavirus cases. Distilleries were included in the definition of a bar as an establishment making 51% or more of its profits from alcohol sales even though distillery sales aren’t based on the late nights and crowds that characterize bars.
“We can't do tours, and our beer garden is shut down,” Rylander said. “We can't do any private or public events, which limits our way of making revenue. If these conditions continue past six months, they will have a long-term impact. It will be hard for quite a few distilleries to support even their base operations. Luckily, we have a brewery and a distillery side, which complement each other in certain ways.”
Statewide, 500,620 coronavirus cases have been reported with 8,710 deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
"We get a lot of requests from people who want a tour, and our tour is one of the top-rated throughout the state,” Rylander said. “People seem to have a really good time and the tour is educational. We had adjusted the tours for COVID-19 by having much smaller groups, keeping them separated, wearing face-coverings, and keeping a good portion of the tour outside.”
Currently, distilleries can sell only two bottles of alcohol per customer in one month and are not permitted to ship, according to media reports.
“The avenues where our products usually go to market are not available right now,” said Rylander who is advocating for Abbott to change restrictions, which other states no longer maintain. He suggests:
Contact-less direct to consumer sales
“In quite a few other states, distilleries have switched to direct to consumer sales, which is something we're pushing for now,” Rylander said. “It’s a way the government can help by giving us other options of getting products out to folks as long as they are over 21. We would have a lot of folks in Texas and throughout the U.S. that would want to order our products if we were permitted direct-to-consumer sales.”
Local delivery
“Some states allow local delivery, which would compensate or, at least, allow us to operate in some other form during this time,” Rylander said. "Currently, the state does not allow local delivery. If we could deliver directly to local consumers, that's something that larger companies cannot really do and would give us a new revenue stream."
Curbside sales
Rylander is also pushing for curbside sales as an interim solution, which currently is only permitted for wineries.
“In a lot of other states, it’s allowed but not in Texas,” Rylander said.
