TOPIC:

Does any one know the specific legal obsticals on this topic, say a friend wanted to purchase 50 ltr of beer, how do you go about doing it legaly, is it worth the hassle, what are the implications for the process and where it is brewed, do you need to have a food producers cert or somthing.

It's just out of curiosity, more and more people drink at home and for partys, it could be a good sideline if it was legaly viable.

I would never dream of selling 50 ltr of beer for a friends party, cos it's a major no no......... <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

Has any one looked into this in depth before

First you'd need a brewers license, which is handy enough, though you'd have issues with where the brewery was and such. Official types tend to care little about the health and safety aspects because beer is generally not a source of food poisioning.

Then you'll need a bond for the alcohol you store on site before you pay the excise to the Revenue, and a bank only give you this if they think your brewery is secure enough.

The real kicker comes if you want to sell your beer direct to Joe Public. For this you need a license which'll set you back 250,000 notes, though the price is dropping all the time.

I suppose if it was simple we'd all be doing it.

I was talking to a small brewer in Freising, Bavaria, last week. Well, he was big, but his brewery was small (250 litres). He runs a brewpub that is also a bakery. I had asked him about licenses, and he just said it was "no problem". I would have thought the bureaucracy and health officialdom here would make it harder. His brew room wasn't the surgically clean environment I thought it would be <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Anyway, a bit off topic there, but it would seem the selling to the public is the main barrier in Ireland. I was just wondering how this compares to other places.

[size=75:1ypvkxv1]You can read about the brewpub on my blog[/url:1ypvkxv1] tomorrow[/size:1ypvkxv1]

Actually, there is a loophole which applies to the example at hand.

[quote:36vabwcq]
From Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Excise Licences Manual section 8.2 Beer dealers.

Quantities which may be sold.

The licence authorises the sale of beer in any quantity not less than two-and-a-quarter gallons to a person who is licensed to sell beer by retail, and in any quantity not less than four-and-a-half gallons or two dozen reputed quart bottles to any other person.[/quote:36vabwcq]

So you can sell direct to the public without a spirits on or off license (the licence Thom was talking about) requiring only a beer dealers, or brewers license, as long as you are selling in a large enough quantity.

&amp;quot;sbillings&amp;quot;:23ddgycw wrote: Actually, there is a loophole which applies to the example at hand.

[quote:23ddgycw]not less than four-and-a-half gallons or two dozen reputed quart bottles to any other person.[/quote:23ddgycw][/quote:23ddgycw]Which explains why David Llewelyn will only sell you his cider by the case. Very interesting.

That's a very promising loophole. By removing the middle man fee surely a larger batch of beer could be made economically viable for a craft beer loving member of the public.