Question regarding serving beer at a restaurant..

So a buddy of mine owns a 100% craft beer wing restaurant. They are getting close to getting their draft system installed and a conversation came up about him serving a keg of my beer from time to time. We both know that I can't sell him the keg and he can't sell the beer to the public, so all of it would be 100% free. He would establish the night as some sort of a homebrewers appreciation night. Would there be any issues with him doing this?

Just a thought at the moment and we both plan on researching it a bit, but i figured I would ask here first.

Thanks guys

Well you'll have to really look into your state laws. In Texas, I believe you can give it away without issue.

rhamilton said:

Well you'll have to really look into your state laws. In Texas, I believe you can give it away without issue.

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Thats kinda what I think it is out here also. I've seen a few places give away homebrew with no issues.

If he had a brew pub it would be a different story...

ajbram said:

If he had a brew pub it would be a different story...

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what do you mean?

Well, if he brewed on the premises, then you could help him brew a batch of your recipe on his equipment and he could then sell it.

Depending on your local laws of course... if it was part of a tasting, such as a brewer's club meeting it would probably be ok, but maybe not so if it was "hey, free beer on X night as long as it lasts!". Most places, "free beer" doesn't fly with the ABC boards, some places get around that by having "penny beer", ok, great, but then in your case you would be selling beer that legally couldn't be sold... back to square one. SO, I suggest you contact the enforcement agent for your local ABC and ask about what would work or not

wailingguitar said:

Depending on your local laws of course... if it was part of a tasting, such as a brewer's club meeting it would probably be ok, but maybe not so if it was "hey, free beer on X night as long as it lasts!". Most places, "free beer" doesn't fly with the ABC boards, some places get around that by having "penny beer", ok, great, but then in your case you would be selling beer that legally couldn't be sold... back to square one. SO, I suggest you contact the enforcement agent for your local ABC and ask about what would work or not

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perfect, thanks. That kinda goes in line with our thoughts of doing a homebrewers appreciation night.

I'll have to see about finding some more info on our local laws.

If I was the business owner I would be worried about liability too. If a bartender can be liable for over-serving someone $4 drafts, imagine how the courts would see him twisting peoples arms by giving it away, especially a good tasting homebrew. Sheesh might as well tie them up and force it down their throats.
<please note the sarcasm toward people who can't take responsibility for their own actions>

Why on earth do you want to give your beer away to a bunch of drunken strangers?

jonk331 said:

why on earth do you want to give your beer away to a bunch of drunken strangers?

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+1

riored4v said:

perfect, thanks. That kinda goes in line with our thoughts of doing a homebrewers appreciation night.

I'll have to see about finding some more info on our local laws.

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Yeah, you really should. Until about a year and a a half ago, it wasn't even legal here to transport your beer outside your house, let alone serve it. That's been rectified now and we can not only transport it, we can serve it free for tastings, even at licensed establishments. But that has no bearing on your laws, of course. You can start here...

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/statutes/colorado

Check out CO's laws on transporting and serving homebrew. While it might not end up being an issue for you, the statutes say you cannot serve to the general public and serving size is limited to 6 oz.

JonK331 said:

Why on earth do you want to give your beer away to a bunch of drunken strangers?

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exactly. even if you did it legally, that's an awful lot of work to put into brewing only to give it away to a bunch of people you don't know, and with no real benefit to you.

Really, guys? You're giving him a hard time about giving away some homebrew? A couple reasons for you:

1. I would love to give away a keg of my finest homebrew, just to see happy people, and the appreciation people might have for a good brew. How much does it really cost you? Maybe $100 in ingredients? Hard work, too, yes. But anyone who puts hard work and love into their brew should be proud to serve it to anyone, even strangers.
2. Knowing it's a homebrew might actually get more people interested in giving it a try themselves. Let's get this hobby some more followers!

strat_thru_marshall said:

exactly. even if you did it legally, that's an awful lot of work to put into brewing only to give it away to a bunch of people you don't know, and with no real benefit to you.

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Well I give away a lot of beer, some to complete strangers. How I made it break even, and even make a little money, is to sell brewery t-shirts and mugs. I was doing my taxes and couldn't believe how many shirts I sold...over 200!!

I think it's a great idea if you can get it up and running!!! I would love to have a place around here that would do a homebrew night. We have a local pub that is a meeting spot for the local homebrew club, but a night open to the public would be cool.

Is the bar owner really thinking this through? Isn't everybody going to opt for the free beer over the $6 pint?

Of course you could limit it to one per person...

I was thinking about doing something similar. I have some friends who are in a pretty popular local band. We want to have a party at a local restaurant's banquet room where they play and I pour my beers. Of course the biggest stumbling block is that the restaurant has a really beer selection so they would be losing out on income BUT it might get new customers in the door for the first time. The owners are very cool, they homebrew and teach homebrewing classes at the restaurant.

Why not just act as a guest brewer and make a batch of your beer on his system. It would avoid potential legal issues.

As a pub owner myself, the very next thing you should do is call your ABC (or your state's equivalent). In NO jurisdiction that I'm aware of can a restaurant ever give away beer, except as a specifically sized sample of a beer they actually carry, or (in fewer jurisdictions) that you may carry. Now if you close the restaurant to the public and have a FREE private event, in certain jurisdictions this becomes a private party or club, in which case you MAY be okay if nothing is charged for alcohol (including tickets to the event, or illusory tricks, like charging for the glassware).

The liability issues are myriad, it's a nice thought, but the answer will likely be "no". This is why you've probably never seen a pub do this. This is unfortunate, because I'd love to do this.

Now, I have seen sanctioned homebrew competitions (though rarely) at commercial establishments, even during business hours. Either the ABC is choosing not to fight this battle (probably), or the establishment has a special event license of some sort (possibly), or there is an actual black-letter loophole for such events (doubtfully). I've seen several brewpubs hold competitions (no alcohol is given to the public), and the best brews have then been brewed at the pub with the winner for a one-off. This is a good bet. I've even seen pubs with brewpub (rather than beer and wine) licenses which make the bare minimum to maintain the license - this allows them more leeway to make and serve beer with the help of the homebrew community.

Bottom line, call your ABC and ask them directly. In my experience, they're pretty easy to deal with, and pretty quick to answer any questions you have.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Is the bar owner really thinking this through? Isn't everybody going to opt for the free beer over the $6 pint?

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His prices are extremely fair. We're talking a craft beer bar that serves $3.50 local micro's and $7 bottles of Duchesse and other sour beers. It would also bring in extra business for him and would help me out with a potential quest to go pro and get my name out there.

Just a matter of finding the loopholes and regulations out at this point. Hopefully it will be possible.

The Brew Hut/Dry Dock in Aurora does Home Brewer's Night where they ask for everyone to bring their own beer to share. Maybe it can be done like that, where your beer just happens to be shared on the tap system.

EDIT: What's the name of the place anyways? Might want to check it out .

Kaleco said:

The Brew Hut/Dry Dock in Aurora does Home Brewer's Night where they ask for everyone to bring their own beer to share. Maybe it can be done like that, where your beer just happens to be shared on the tap system.

EDIT: What's the name of the place anyways? Might want to check it out .

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It's Wing Hut. Right across the street basically from Dry Dock and they provide the .25 Power Hour nights on Monday @ Dry Dock.

Pretty much regulars of both Dry Dock & Brew Hut:rockin:

One thought is to do it as a benefit night. My local pub guy did a benefit recently to raise funds for a customer undergoing some expensive medical procedures. One regular brought in a keg of homebrew. The owner may it very very clear that the homebrew was free but drinkers were also strongly encouraged to contribute to the cause.
I would definitely give a keg of my brew to a good cause in this manner if the pub was comfortable with it.

tektonjp said:

One thought is to do it as a benefit night. My local pub guy did a benefit recently to raise funds for a customer undergoing some expensive medical procedures. One regular brought in a keg of homebrew. The owner may it very very clear that the homebrew was free but drinkers were also strongly encouraged to contribute to the cause.
I would definitely give a keg of my brew to a good cause in this manner if the pub was comfortable with it.

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It really depends on the municipality and local laws. I can't stress enough that the only appropriate place to get an answer is by calling the ABC

Check this out
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/beerly-legal/Content?oid=2679337

+1...to calling your local ABC office especially if the restaurant already has a liquor license. You would hate to jeopardize that needlessly.
On the other hand though there are a lot of homebrewing laws that are archaic and go against common sense. Looking at some of the recent and proposed changes in Oregon and Wisconsin homebrewing laws it appears that no one is interested in rewriting the law until someone gets in trouble. I think a case could be made for "violating" and exposing some of these useless laws in the hopes that then legislation would be drafted correcting them.

JonK331 said:

Why on earth do you want to give your beer away to a bunch of drunken strangers?

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giving alcohol to strange drunks makes them seem less strange.