Is takeing a beer to a bar illegal?

So a "beer bar" in town thinks it's illegal to bring one of my homebrews or commercial beers to share with patrons/bartenders. I can't see this to be true since our homebrew club meets every month a does exactly that. This is the only bar I've seen have a problem with it others around are cool with it.

Yes it is

It depends where you live. Home brew laws differ from state to state.

Not much of an answer. Where do you live?

Florida. But how can thousands of homebrew clubs do it.

Fullblownmonkeytilt said:

Florida. But how can thousands of homebrew clubs do it.

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Do they do it at a bar?

The articles I have read are somewhat older now, but some states do not even allow the beer to leave the premises where it was brewed. There are some states that allow it at official club meetings and others that do not.

This might be better answered by a quick google search for Florida laws regarding the laws.

Yeah bar/restraint.

I know it's illegal in my state to bring outside alcohol into a bar/restaurant. The ABC (liquor) license that the bar holds only gives their patrons the right to consume alcohol on premises if purchased from the license holder (the bar).

Not sure why you'd assume a bar would let you bring in your own product and take away sales. My local HB club gets some sort of special permission for tastings at the brewery/bar where we meet but that's rather different from bringing in several to share with your buddies.

It depends on your state laws and the bars alcohol permits. It's similar to being able to bring in a bottle of wine and being charged an uncorking fee. Whether their permit allows that and whether they charge you a fee depends on them.

In some states, it's legal if the bar oks it. In some states, it is not.

I'm not sure of the laws in FL, but they just made it legal to have homebrew tastings in bars as a venue here in Michigan. Up until then, it was illegal.

In addition to state laws, there are also different degrees of liquor licenses. Like in Ohio, you can have a 1 AM close, or a 2 AM close, and the second license costs more.

If a bar tells you it is illegal, they are protecting their liquor license and they are probably correct since they know the laws.

In many states it is illegal to take a commercial beer into a place that sells beer.

I'm not saying I want to bring a keg and party it up at there place. If on the rare occasion I have a special sour our stout to bring a bottle and share with mainly the bartenders I'm friends with. I'm defiantly not trying to take any sales away.

If a bar says no, respect that. They pay a lot of money for their zoning and liquor/beer & wine licenses and you could be risking them losing their license should someone from the ABT show up.

Here is the applicable statute...

Wine and beer made under the provisions of this section may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use, including use at organized affairs, exhibitions, or competitions, such as homemakers' contests, tastings, or judgings. Wine or beer used under this subsection shall not be sold or offered for sale.

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Fullblownmonkeytilt said:

I'm not saying I want to bring a keg and party it up at there place. If on the rare occasion I have a special sour our stout to bring a bottle and share with mainly the bartenders I'm friends with. I'm defiantly not trying to take any sales away.

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I don't know whether or not it is illegal, but if it is illegal then it probably doesn't matter what the amount is nor does it matter that your intents are well-meaning.

Lost sales is one thing but likely not the biggest concern of the bar. if it is illegal and a bar knowingly allows you to do this they could incur a big fine, have their license suspended, or maybe even lose their license.

...is the question "should it be illegal to pop a single bomber of my homebrew and pour my bartender buddies five-ounce pours", or "is it illegal"?

I don't think anybody here thinks it should be illegal as such, but, the fact of the matter is, laws written to prohibit larger-scale commerce in unregulated alcohol will probably snag your single bottle of homebrew in their net, regardless of what your intentions are or how big of an impact that one bottle of homebrew has on your one particular favorite bar's sales.

Given the harshness of penalties and strictness of enforcement of liquor laws, if you want your bartender buddies to have jobs in a bar that's still open next week, give them the benefit of the doubt when they say something's illegal this week.

That was in response to swivelhips!

I bring home brew to the local bar/liquor store to share/swap with one of the bartenders who also brews. However, we swap bottles out in the parking lot and don't bring it into the establishment, nor do we drink any of it on the property.

Another point worth bringing up is that its probably not legal for your bartenders to have any alcohol while pulling on tap handles.

Legalality notwithstanding, seems to be in poor taste. You wouldn't go to a steak house and bring in a slab of ribeye you just grilled to eat there and share with your buddies, most of whom are cooks there. If the owner of the bar doesn't want you doing this, you should respect his wishes....after all, it is HIS bar.

Jayhem said:

I know it's illegal in my state to bring outside alcohol into a bar/restaurant. The ABC (liquor) license that the bar holds only gives their patrons the right to consume alcohol on premises if purchased from the license holder (the bar).

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I've brought homebrew to a bar here in the Commonwealth (Clyde's in Tysons Corner).

ABC manager charged a "corking" fee, forget how much it was and said that we could not pour it ourselves. they kept it in their fridge and brought it out to us in glasses that actually fit the style.

now that I typed that, I was wondering where the bottles I was missing were left

I know that in Indiana, if the establishment does not have a liquor license, some places permit people to bring in their own alchohol whether it be beer, wine, or vodka etc. Again that is only if they do not have a liquor license and I am not sure whether they have to allow you to carry in or not. That does not sound like the case here as I would safely assume a bar has a liquor license. what you are suggesting is like walking into a restaurant and bringing your own dinner.

As Yooper said, even in Michigan where it's legal, it's mostly illegal. Only recently has state law allowed a bar to permit a homebrew club to hold tastings. Notice that I said it was up to the bar to decide. It's not automatically legal. The establishment holds the right to decline to allow the club to bring in their homebrewed beer for a club event. And I think Michigan is one of the rare states that allow this at all.

Up until recently you couldn't even bring your homebrew into a bar.

Here is the thing. The bar pays a large amount of money to have the right to serve alcohol. They have a LOT of policies they have to follow and some of them are regarding how much is served. Besides the obvious loss of sales (which, granted is not that much for a bottle or two) keeping account of someone's alcohol intake can be a very serious thing for them.

The best thing to do is to make the gifting happen outside the bar, say in the parking lot or something. That would at least keep the bar from getting in trouble with the liquor commission.

doubletapbrewing said:

I know that in Indiana, if the establishment does not have a liquor license, some places permit people to bring in their own alchohol whether it be beer, wine, or vodka etc. Again that is only if they do not have a liquor license and I am not sure whether they have to allow you to carry in or not. That does not sound like the case here as I would safely assume a bar has a liquor license. what you are suggesting is like walking into a restaurant and bringing your own dinner.

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What? That's not what I'm suggesting at all! And no if you read the OP it says beer bar so no Liquor!

The other issues is that we're talking about homebrew - bringing in outside purchased beer is one thing, as the taxes have been paid on it. No taxes were paid in the production of your homebrew. I know in CA (when I used to live there) the law was such that I could not give away or sell my homebrew except for purposes of judging and competition, or shared with family within my residence. So, I just made sure all my friends gave me their opinions and judged my homebrew, and I always won my competitions... Not sure if your state has similar restrictions on the distribution of homebrew.

feinbera said:

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I don't think anybody here thinks it should be illegal as such,

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On the contrary, if they have a liquor license, it's almost certainly illegal. The only "out" is if there is a specific law allowing it, and that's rare.

If they sell beer to patrons, they have a liquor license. (Liquor license isn't just for "liquor"- beer and wine are included).

If they let you bring in a beer to give away or sample, they could lose their liquor license as well as pay HUGE fees. This is a very serious offense.

jeepinjeepin said:

Another point worth bringing up is that its probably not legal for your bartenders to have any alcohol while pulling on tap handles.

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this is not true.

Fullblownmonkeytilt said:

What? That's not what I'm suggesting at all! And no if you read the OP it says beer bar so no Liquor!

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"Liquor license" doesn't mean only hard liquor. It means alcoholic beverages. If they sell and serve beer, it's a LIQUOR LICENSE. They may not have all the licenses to stay open until two AM and such, as there are different "tiers" of licenses in each state. But it's still called a "liquor license" and they cost a fortune to buy. Keeping one is a huge deal.

jeepinjeepin said:

Another point worth bringing up is that its probably not legal for your bartenders to have any alcohol while pulling on tap handles.

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Every place I have worked as a bartender allowed occasional drinking behind the bar, but if you were drunk or were causing issues in doing so it was no longer allowed. Never once in my years tending was I told not to.

Now this is not to say that some states may not have rules on the books saying otherwise but I have tended in a couple different states and they all told me the same thing.

NewJersey said:

this is not true.

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Nightshade said:

Every place I have worked as a bartender allowed occasional drinking behind the bar, but if you were drunk or were causing issues in doing so it was no longer allowed. Never once in my years tending was I told not to.

Now this is not to say that some states may not have rules on the books saying otherwise but I have tended in a couple different states and they all told me the same thing.

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Fair enough. I've not tended bar, but I thought that was the case here in NC. I very well could be wrong.

In my state, some places have a brown bag license. You can bring whatever you want into those places. A place with just a license to sell beer, wine, and/or liquor ... I don't think they are allowed to let you bring anything in from the outside...nor would they want to because they want to sell you that beer for $4.00 or whatever they charge.

I'm only aware of the older laws though, they might have changed since I was a bouncer in a brown bag bar for a while between age 17 and 20...I could bounce but I couldn't step behind the bar or handle any alcohol, even the empty glasses. They made their money by having a band to attract people in and you'd BYOB so they could sell you the setups for full drink prices. In an otherwise dry town (at the time)...it was a pretty good scam.

As others mentioned it def varies from state to state and I don't have any idea what the laws are in Florida. I'm in PA and I know here it is a violation to be drinking when serving alcohol, so it's possible that's the case in other states as well.

As far as homebrew clubs bringing beer in I'm guessing this only occurs when they are having a meeting or gathering of some sort and with permission from management of the bar/restaurant. These clubs may be paying a fee to be there or it may just be a courtesy of there's x people here for a meeting and ordering food and what not that they can share there homebrew between themselves. Certainly different than sitting down at the bar and opening a beer you brought in.

Legal or not common courtesy would be to ask management/owner prior to opening your bottle at the bar.

I know in Indiana you have to obtain a temporary liquor license to serve another person a beer in a public space, bars included.