Laws and costs involved in selling my booze

[phildo79]

The letter of the law states you cannot give away your home brew let alone sell it, we all know this is BS and many members here do bottle swaps etc and no one has ever been prosecuted but to move to the quantity you may be selling is totally different.

Is that in case you accidentally kill someone with a lethal homebrew?

 

[obscure]

Is that in case you accidentally kill someone with a lethal homebrew?

I suspect most laws on home brew are about making sure HMRC get their pound of flesh (although with a certain form of alcohol manufacture we don’t talk about on here that is also a very real concern).

I suspect in reality it is so they can go after people who are trying to ‘skirt’ the law say by claiming they aren’t selling it but just happen to leave a collection box on the side or that it is a gift (that they happen to only give to people paying for a meal) or similar rather than going after people doing a bottle swap, or sharing a few bottles with a friend.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Chippy_Tea -
The letter of the law states you cannot give away your home brew let alone sell it, we all know this is BS and many members here do bottle swaps etc and no one has ever been prosecuted but to move to the quantity you may be selling is totally different.

Stevieboy -
I didn't know you weren't even allowed to give it away!? That's a new one on me.

Is it legal to sell homebrew in the UK?

In the United Kingdom, you are not permitted to sell your homebrewed beer and wine.

Now let’s make it really clear what ‘selling’ means. You might assume that selling your homebrew means you are giving it to someone in exchange for money. But this isn’t strictly true.

UK laws state that you mustn’t even give away any homebrew if it will be drunk on premises other than your own. If you pop a few homemade bottles of wine into your friend’s bag for them to try at home, you are in theory breaking the law. That being said, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get prosecuted for such a minor offence; in fact, it would likely go unnoticed.

However, if you do plan to do more than simply offer a drink to a friend as a Christmas gift, then you will need to get a license from the HMRC. This is made up of two components; a personal license as well as a license for the premises from which the drinks will be sold.

https://homebrewjournals.com/home-brewing-laws-uk/

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I suspect most laws on home brew are about making sure HMRC get their pound of flesh (although with a certain form of alcohol manufacture we don’t talk about on here that is also a very real concern).

That's the nail hit firmly on the head

 

[Hoddy]

Surely the man to ask is @Hoddy .

You can say I’ve had a bit of experience in this.

There are the three main areas that require consents/licenses.
HMRC - paying tax and registration as a alcohol duty paying business.
Food standards - being registered as producing food products and doing so within allowed practise and in a safe manner.
AWRS - registered alcohol seller scheme and stopping illegal sales/distribution of alcohol that is not safe or has been illegally imported.

There are other obvious things required around planning and actually having the right qualification (personal licenses) and the license to pack/sell alcohol (premises license) that also go with it.

Hope that helps scratch the surface on the topic.

 

[brubro]

I think it's worth reading this guy's post (recovered because the blog has since gone under). It seems that setting yourself up to legally sell beer is not as hard as it is usually said to be. However, it's not as easy as just registering to pay duty.