Serving homebrew at public events?

I am a member of a local, private, not-for-profit association, and we are planning events for the year. A clambake has been proposed, and I'd like to provide a few kegs of homebrew for the event.

We would NOT be selling the homebrew; rather, we would sell tickets to the event, which gets you a meal ticket that includes a complimentary beverage of your choice.

I don't expect any definitive legal answers out of this forum, but any pointers, or past experience would be greatly appreciated.

You will need to contact your local ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) and get the necessary permits to even serve commercial beer. I'm guessing they'll say no way on homebrew.

Warped04 said:

You will need to contact your local ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) and get the necessary permits to even serve commercial beer. I'm guessing they'll say no way on homebrew.

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+1 to contacting the ABC. What we've discovered here in AZ is that the answer changes with the makeup of the ABC. Best of luck.

As an example: in Oregon all alcohol has to be served by certified servers, the venue has to be licensed for alcohol, people have to have their age verified (again by a certified server) and you need insurance.

Our association does have a beer and wine license, so we can sell and serve *commercial* beer. I omitted that information before, because I didn't want to imply that I such a license had any bearing on serving homebrew.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll check with the local ABC.

JacquesPerrault said:

Our association does have a beer and wine license, so we can sell and serve *commercial* beer. I omitted that information before, because I didn't want to imply that I such a license had any bearing on serving homebrew.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll check with the local ABC.

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If your event is off-site your license does not cover it.

state to state....better check with you local ABC or equivalent.

That said, I just had a fund-raiser for a not-for-profit organization where we rented a facility from the city parks division, paid the $5 surcharge so we could serve alcohol, charged admission to the general public for the event, and had a complimentary tasting of two ancient beers that I brewed. No issues. advertised in the paper, flyers all over town, and on local radio.

Some might say I was lucky. I'd say it's Montana, where the sign at the border says, "Welcome to Montana! Don't worry, no one's looking." (or it ought to)

Heck we have done that in the past with no problems. You are not selling the brew but giving it away.

Grinder12000 said:

Heck we have done that in the past with no problems. You are not selling the brew but giving it away.

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There is a difference between not having any problem and something being legal.

Violation of state liquor laws can be quite expensive and may involve jail time.

If you share your home brew at home with some friends and family no one is going to care as long as the party doesn't get law called on it. However a large public event that is charged admission will get different scrutiny.

I think because you are indirectly have people pay for the beer you will have some issues with the ABC, but check with them to be sure. And definitely do your homework before serving to be sure no one can be a d**k about it.

Craig

Grinder12000 said:

Heck we have done that in the past with no problems. You are not selling the brew but giving it away.

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Same here in Iowa. It was beerfest. They sold entrance tickets to get into the area and provided wrist bands. There were no limits on how much one could drink after you got the wristband.

Home brew and commercial beers were served in dixie cups. You could drink a ton for something like $18

There had to be at least 15-20 booths with just homebrewers giving away their beer. Prolly another local breweries and distrubutors totaling 60 or so. If you walked in with a keg the entrance fee was waved.

:rockin:

david_42 said:

As an example: in Oregon all alcohol has to be served by certified servers, the venue has to be licensed for alcohol, people have to have their age verified (again by a certified server) and you need insurance.

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Yeah, thanks OLCC I have volunteered at brew fests and all it takes to become a certified server is signing your name on a piece of paper saying you won't serve to drunk people.

I think it also depends on how big this event is and who is coming, but it only takes one person to screw it all up. I'd check first.

Well - like slot machines in bars - those are illegal also but every bar has them (and make $500 a month with ease).

Yeah, thanks OLCC I have volunteered at brew fests and all it takes to become a certified server is signing your name on a piece of paper saying you won't serve to drunk people.

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That's basically it, but they still make you go through the class. I did it a couple months ago. Burned a whole Saturday.

I would recommend talking to TIPS as well. TIPS stands for Training for Intervention ProcedureS and I know the man who was in charge of training me (I needed it for work) was VERY informative on dramshoppe laws and liabilities in the eyes of the state and also in lawsuits...