Selling homebrew wine

[rozza2010]

Hi,

I have had a few friends try some of my homebrew which I gave them to try (after all the effort I put in). They loved it and said they would love some more and have offered to buy it.

Is there anyway to give away my wine but have small donations in return for my time, effort, ingredients and bottles/labels, other than getting a full alcohol licence?

Thanks
Paul

 

[Moley]

The rules are simple enough - you can make whatever beer, wine & cider you like for your own personal consumption but you mustn't sell it, either directly or for payment in kind. Strictly speaking, you shouldn't even give it away.

Obviously, most of us do give away just the very occasional bottle to friends or family, just to show off what we're producing, but when any of my workmates have asked if they could buy some my reply has been an uneqivocal “no - but I'll teach you how to make your own if you'd like”.

 

[evanvine]

Moley is 110% right; you can brew, vint or make for your own use only. :nono:
I suppose a moot point comes when you have friends/family round to your house. :wha:

 

[Lobes]

Surely you could swap your wine amongst friends for other services of an equivalent value? Maybe give them a bottle or 2 in exchange for them cooking you a meal or 2? Or just don't tell anyone about the odd fiver here and there! :lol:

 

[Duncs]

How about just selling the bottle... that just happens to have homebrew in it?

 

[jamesb]

There are NO legal ways around it and HMRC will hit you so hard your feet won't even touch the ground if they get a suspicion that you're doing it. And there's plenty of grasses around.

 

[graysalchemy]

Not worth the bother, just enjoy the hobby and enjoy your wine/beer.

 

[artyb]

i have people who 'give" the ingredients and i keep half of the wine,

 

[Aleman]

i have people who 'give" the ingredients and i keep half of the wine,

This is a public forum and there are/could be members on here who actually work for HMCE :whistle:

Even doing what you suggest is against the strict letter of the legislation

 

[Moley]

Last night I sidelined this topic as I thought it might head towards some risky suggestions of how to bend or flout the rules.

This morning I reinstated it, and unfortunately my misgivings have been realised.

I'll repeat what James said, and then I'm locking it.

There are NO legal ways around it and HMRC will hit you so hard your feet won't even touch the ground if they get a suspicion that you're doing it. And there's plenty of grasses around.