I've come across some pretty interesting legal research questions in the past few years, but most of them are easily answered in a few short hours with the aid of Lexis or Westlaw. No need to move much further than to reach for a cup of hot coffee or to find a working highlighter. Today, however, found me at the Texas State Library and Archives to answer a completely novel, and a particularly interesting, question: why did the Texas legislature make a distinction between "beer" and "ale?" My research began on Westlaw, but I quickly realized my question would take me back decades, resources for which have yet to be put online. So today, with great care lest the archive librarian blow an already short fuse, I sorted through minutes and documents of the Texas Alcohol Commission, the Texas Brewer's Association, and the original bill files from the late 1800s through about the 1950s. I didn't find a definitive answer today, but hopefully it will be lurking in one of these remaining dusty old boxes.
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