Nitsua

Recipes 

Calling me an amateur home brewer is an understatement. Only two beers have been finished and distributed to friends, others are fermenting and bottle conditioning.
One of my buddies wants to give me some of money to start brewing on a larger scale ($500 -$1000). I know it's not a LARGE sum of money but I'm not sure he is taking a wise bet. He obviously does not want a full brewery, he just wants to sell beer to friends. While selling beer w/o a license does seem "exciting", I'm not quite sure it is such a good idea.

I had never thought about trying to make money off my friends for a hobby.

If I took the money could upgrade to all-grain, and maybe larger batch sizes. Then sell beer to friends until I repaid him.
OOOOO maybe even set up a small bar in the garage

Question 1: Should I take the money?
Question 2: Would you/ Should I, have any ethical problems selling to friends?

I am torn on what to do.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

__________________
Brewed = 75 gallons
#15 Pale Ale #14 Wee Heavy, #13 Cascadian Black IPA, #12 Irish Red, #11 American Wheat, #10 Traditional Bock, #9 American Standard w/ ale yeast, #8-Newcastle Clone, #7-Belgian Triple, #6-DFH 60 minute IPA clone, #5-EdWort's Apfelwein, #4-Bee Cave Hefe, #3-Scotch Ale, #2-Nut Brown Ale,

Nurmey

Recipes 

Whatever you decide it is a really bad idea to commit a Federal offense.

__________________
Batch 1 Brewing
The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

llazy_llama

Recipes 

Yeah... I don't know about you folks, but spending time in a federal prison just doesn't sound like fun to me.

__________________

winzerz

Recipes 

TABC (texas alcohol and beverage commision) frowns rather severly on this practice

I believe its called "bootlegging"

__________________
Put your hands in the air and step away from that Fermentor

Primary:

Other Primary: Hanks Hefe Weizen

Bottled: Scotish Ale 80/-

Nitsua

Recipes 

The Legal aspects are by far my biggest concern. The risk far out out weigh any reward.
I mostly wanted to play devils advocate and see if anyone made a good argument for.
Many thanks for the input.

__________________
Brewed = 75 gallons
#15 Pale Ale #14 Wee Heavy, #13 Cascadian Black IPA, #12 Irish Red, #11 American Wheat, #10 Traditional Bock, #9 American Standard w/ ale yeast, #8-Newcastle Clone, #7-Belgian Triple, #6-DFH 60 minute IPA clone, #5-EdWort's Apfelwein, #4-Bee Cave Hefe, #3-Scotch Ale, #2-Nut Brown Ale,

BoyScout

Recipes 

So don't sell them beer, sell them memberships in a social club or beer admiration society.
Provide the beer absolutely free as a bonus for showing up at club meetings.

Mustangfreak

Recipes 

I don't sell my beer, but I do accept donations and tips.

__________________
2 Fox Brewing Co.
www.militarystangs.com

hayabusa

Recipes 

Your friends can buy your ingredients for you; so you brew for free and then you give them 1/2 of the beer. That's fair and legal.

__________________
shocker brewing - two in the pale, one in the ale.

Tenchiro

Recipes 

there is a club like that in Seattle, the owner got tired of the smoking laws in bars and created his own club. There is no fee to join and no admission just BYOB or make a donation and donate to the club. The only way to get in is word of mouth but once they like you you can go back whenever you want. Since it is a private establishment that is not open to the public they fly under the radar for the man.

It is one of the coolest places I have hung out in.

__________________

ChshreCat

Recipes 

I'm going to be doing that. My boss is hooked on chocolate stout, so she's going to buy the ingredients for a batch, I'll brew it and we'll split the spoils.

__________________
"Science + beer = good!"
-Adam Savage