Selling alcohol-free beer for charity?

Hey guys, a friend and I were thinking about doing a charity event by selling our beers, however after a quick bit of research it turns out that selling your home brew without a brewers license is illegal. But what about selling non-alcoholic homebrew? As duty for alcohol is paid on any beverages higher than 1.2% alcohol, below that it's considered alcohol free. So would raising money for charity with a range of non-alcoholic beers be ok?

Cheers

I know you can offset some tax with donations to charity. Could you have a play with some tax calculators and see if you would be willing to make up any shortfall.

Or could you do a charity bake/bbq and offer "free" home brewed beers (I think technically we're not supposed to do that either...?

I saw this bit of advice on the site referenced below:


So, maybe this is the answer.

Another suggestion is to give the booze away for free; but slap a £2 deposit on the bottle; refundable if the bottle is returned.

Obviously, for charity only a genuine Scrooge would return the bottle; but the offer has to be there to make the beer "free". :thumb:



http://www.thelawforum.co.uk/help-legality-sharing-home-brew

We get lots of threads like this, and the question I always ask myself has anyone ever actually been prosecuted for selling their homebrew? Especially on a one-off basis like a charity bash. Can't see customs and excise having the resources or the will to bother chasing someone up for so small an offence.

You start selling beer even if it is alcohol free and the Environmental health might want to inspect to see if you meet current food regulations just in case you poison someone!

geetee said:

You start selling beer even if it is alcohol free and the Environmental health might want to inspect to see if you meet current food regulations just in case you poison someone!

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FSA rules only apply to businesses, so for instance selling homemade cakes and lemonade at fundraisers isn't illegal. I don't see why < 1.2% abv beer would be any different to lemonade.

Unfortunately though there is no duty payable below 1.2% HMRC would require you to register as a brewery if you produce beer over 0.5%. If you did want to proceed at all I would suggest you contact HMRC and your council and get something in writing from both saying they are happy with what you want to do before you consider it.

Dutto said:

I saw this bit of advice on the site referenced below:

"What is required is a Temporary Event Notice which the organiser of your group
can apply for by writing to the Local Authority Licensing Committee in the area
in which the event is to be held.

I am assuming no more than 500 people will attend and the event will last no
longer than 96 hours. Event can be indoors or outdoors and anyone over 18 can
apply for two such events per year. It will cost no more than a few pounds.

Somewhat remarkably the procedure is actually very straightforward and
requires 10 days notice in advance of the event.

If there are no objections by police or Local Authority (extremely rare)
the application is granted automatically.

You are quite right to be alert to potential issues as licensing law
covers the SUPPLY and not just the sale of alcohol."​

So, maybe this is the answer.

Another suggestion is to give the booze away for free; but slap a £2 deposit on the bottle; refundable if the bottle is returned.

Obviously, for charity only a genuine Scrooge would return the bottle; but the offer has to be there to make the beer "free". :thumb:



http://www.thelawforum.co.uk/help-legality-sharing-home-brew

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I think even if you have a T.E.N the person selling the alcohol needs a licence.

nigelnorris said:

We get lots of threads like this, and the question I always ask myself has anyone ever actually been prosecuted for selling their homebrew? Especially on a one-off basis like a charity bash. Can't see customs and excise having the resources or the will to bother chasing someone up for so small an offence.

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I would say yes. There are plenty of busy bodies that are quick to complain. I would think a warning letter may be sent first or a.snall fine.

Leon103 said:

I would say yes. There are plenty of busy bodies that are quick to complain. I would think a warning letter may be sent first or a.snall fine.

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I agree that that's an intuitive point of view, but I've googled the living daylights out of it and despite my normally strong google-fu I can't find any evidence that it's actually happened.

nigelnorris said:

I agree that that's an intuitive point of view, but I've googled the living daylights out of it and despite my normally strong google-fu I can't find any evidence that it's actually happened.

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Perhaps not reportable news?

If I had a fine, would it be on Google? Similar with a warning letter.

I would just make the beer a raffle prize from a mystery brewery

Leon103 said:

Perhaps not reportable news?

If I had a fine, would it be on Google? Similar with a warning letter.

I would just make the beer a raffle prize from a mystery brewery

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There would be someone, somewhere, posting on a forum that it had happened to them, or a court report somewhere if it had gone to court, or any of several other places this sort of thing gets documented.

There's zillions of forum threads asking about the legislation and red tape, yet not a single reply that I can find from anyone saying "don't do it because I did and this is what happened to me...".

Ditto if someone running a charity event got fined then a local paper would probably make something of it but nothing. Very suspicious.

I suspect that very few people have ever got that far. If I was running an event and someone rocked up with a load of homebrew and no proof it was 100% legal, I sure as hell wouldn't take any risks and let them serve it.

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Not really why people would want to buy alcohol free alcohol lol

I look back at all the home-made stuff I have bought and eaten or drunk at village fetes, church bazars, well dressings etc etc and wonder how I have managed to survive.

Knocked up in kitchens, with only "household hygiene" and probably riddled with a wide variety of bacteria, these charity offerings would probably scare the pants of most of our current batch of Environmental Health Inspectors; not to mention the worried parents who cover everything in sight with anti-bacterial sprays. Advertised on TV, they "kill 99.9% of germs dead"! ("How the hell could they kill them 'alive'?" one asks!) :whistle:

I well remember one Well Dressing event where a local farmer turned up with a "killed at home" beef carcass, a home-made manual spit and a load of wood. He set up his gear in the corner of the field where the Well Dressing was taking place at about 9am, sold his first "hot beef sandwich" at about 2pm and by 6pm there was very little beef left on the still rotating carcass!

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb: