Serving Homebrew at a Wedding

My brew partner and I were approached by a mutual friend of ours that is getting married in the coming year. He would like very much for us to serve our beer at his wedding. Few things get me as excited as serving our finely crafted beer to new masses of people, but I want to make sure we do our due diligence and CYA before we agree to do so.

I know we cant sell it. We are planning on having the poor soul with the upcoming nuptuals pay for the ingredients. Any issues with this?

Any other pitfalls or no-no's I should be worried about?

Will it be held on private or public property?

Just explain to him it's expensive and he may offer, or you could offer that as your gift

The only issue would be if the public hall has a problem. If your not charging for it at a private residence, what's the difference between that, and a BBQ at your place?

I don't even know if you'd need to clear it. I would be willing to bet if you showed up to drop your beer off before hand for them to put on ice, they wouldnt ask where it came from, and if they did and you simply said you made it, theyd probably just say "oh cool!" Most wedding planners/staff, if they aren't involved in purchasing or preparing what they are serving will just leave it up to you to provide the goods and they will supply the bodies to serve it.

I didn't brew for a wedding, but I brewed a few batches for my cousins art show a few months ago. My experience tells me if you just play it cool and don't start the sentence with "it's not a federal offense because I'm not charging for it..." you'll be good to go...and the talk of the party for your delicious, hand crafted beer

I brewed a couple batches for a friend's wedding as well as my own. I checked w/ the caterers to make sure they were cool w/ it. They both had no problems. Good luck!

A friend of mine served his homebrew at his sisters wedding, it was a big hit. I don't forsee any problems because honestly, who would they call to report you?

Yep I had all kinds of home made stuff at my wedding in December. It worked out real well since we had to provide all the alcohol as the caterer provided only mixers. I had to even go as far as providing the C02, regulator, lines, etc... all he had was ice and buckets for the kegs.

When I told him that I was making half of the stuff that I was planning to have there (keg of beer, keg of cider and about 100 bottles of wine) he just looked at me like I was a little crazy but had absolutely no concerns with it.

So other than checking with the caterer, I would say verify what else might be needed. If you're bottling it then it's just a matter of a way to keep it all cold, otherwise if you keg you need to know if they have a method to tap it or not.

As others have said, only other issues would be public/private, is alcohol allowed to be served, etc.

The only other potential issue I could foresee is if it is a cash bar, then technically someone is getting paid for serving your beer, which may or may not have any legal recourse if anyone cares enough to figure it out and report it.

SuburbanBrewer said:

The only issue would be if the public hall has a problem. If your not charging for it at a private residence, what's the difference between that, and a BBQ at your place?

Click to expand...

This. Make sure wherever the reception is at doesn't have a problem with it. In some cases, bringing in outside alcohol violates their liquor license.

Also some states differentiate between serving your brew at your house and serving your brew somewhere else.

As others have said, and I'll reiterate here, the only real concern is one of the hall itself. Their license might not allow for outside alcohol to be served, even if it's not being sold. For my upcoming wedding, that's one of the key considerations for venue - I won't go somewhere that doesn't let me bring in my own beer for it.

LimerickBrewCo said:

A friend of mine served his homebrew at his sisters wedding, it was a big hit. I don't forsee any problems because honestly, who would they call to report you?

Click to expand...

They would call the ATF who would rush right out and arrest everybody. No, seriously, the ATF has nothing better to do than bust people for serving homebrew at a wedding.

Well, if you currently live in WI, this would not be legal. The law is also so strange there's no telling what the penalty would be since I'm not sure how they would enforce the law.

BUT, a change to that law has already passed the Senate and is on the schedule for the Assembly today. So, we'll see how that goes!

Jaz

Brew it and give it to them as a gift that they can just so happen to enjoy as soon as they receive it!