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Our first experience with Independence Brewing Company came just a few short years ago when browsing the beer aisle at a nearby Austin grocer. Shuffling past the quick favorites (Lone Star) and growing tired of the old stand-by's (Shiner) we came upon the logo of a shaggy-haired kid jumping, cannonball-style, into a pool not unlike our own Barton Springs. With curious mind and ever-growing soberness, we delved further to discover what has quickly become our favorite beer, The Freestyle Wheat Beer by The Independence Brewery. Over a year and a few dozen six-packs later, Independence continues their local good taste campaign with additional brews, including their Pale Ale, Bootlegger, Austin Amber and Stash IPA.

On the first Saturday of every month, brew master and owner Rob Cartwright, his border-collie Jasperilla and the rest of the folks at Independence open their doors and tap their kegs for an all-out celebration of gratis home-grown beer and the conversations and friendships that grow after three free pint tickets are handed out to a full crowd. A couple Saturday's ago, we drove The Austinist Company Van (with Allen Y Chen as the D.D.) to their humble South Austin brewery just off of Todd Lane to enjoy the all-day event which included free snacks, free tours and free beer. Their next "Open House" is Saturday, October 8, just read the bottom of your next six-pack for directions.

Stingy and outdated beer laws in Texas make breweries like Independence a rare breed in a state where people love beer. In fact, there are only five microbreweries in Texas (Colorado has 44). Aside from Independence, there is Saint Arnold's (Texas' oldest microbrewery in Houston), Rahr & Sons (Fort Worth), Real Ale (Blanco) and Austin's best beer on draft, Live Oak.

Currently as Texas law stands, breweries must use a three-tier system to distribute their product, which means using a middle man, the distributor, to deliver the product to the retailer. These five microbreweries (small-operating breweries, producing less than ten thousand barrels annually) are currently in a legal battle to give them more say in a very competitive market. All breweries stress that they do not want to undercut the business of the distributor (many of these small breweries cannot handle their own large-scale distribution load), they simply feel it should be the brewer's right to distribute straight to the consumer. In 2005, wineries were granted this right. Ironically, there are specially designated brewpubs around town that are allowed to sell their own beer on site, but not in retail stores--exactly why you can drink home brews at places like Bitter End, The Draught House or Copper Tank.

The five craft breweries of Texas produce around 30,000 barrels a year, a mere fraction of the 30 million barrels sold annually in Texas. Protectors of High Life and Bud, Miller Brewing in Fort Worth and Anheuser-Busch in Houston produce the majority in the state.

Breweries like Independence may not stand a chance against these behemoths of beer, but with events like those of the last few Saturdays, craft breweries will continue to hold the hearts, minds and livers of all true beer drinkers.

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