Beer Share Memberships

Stumbled upon this website. Looks like they sell shares of the brewery on a years basis in exchange for "free" beer. Is this legal!?!

http://www.burlingtonbeercompany.com/brewers-dozen

Depends on state laws, I would guess. What a cool, cool concept.

I hope it does well!

it seems to be set up like a couple of wine tasting Clubs I'm a member of except for some reason they wont ship.

$200 for 24 beers a year with the requirement of on site pickup is pretty steep

amandabab said:

$200 for 24 beers a year with the requirement of on site pickup is pretty steep

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Except that it's $200 for 13 beers and some swag.

Assuming you'd pay $15 for a T-shirt and $10 for a snifter, that's still $13.46 per beer. That's a fairly reasonable price for barrel aged beer from an established brewery with the demand to support the price. I wouldn't make that kind of commitment to buying beer sight unseen.

This just seems illegal as hell. It's so obvious what they are doing. They aren't selling the membership... THEY ARE SELLING BEER.

The website is very vague, I'm having trouble deciding if they're an actual licensed brewery or just some guy homebrewing, in which case it's certainly illegal.

Of course they're selling beer, they're a brewery . Unless I'm reading it wrong, which is certainly possible. I definitely like the idea behind it. Not sure if I'd be a fan of some of the beers they're doing, but if I were nearby I'd consider supporting a local brewery.

They're a "brewery-in-planning" with no address on their website. Sounds like they're not licensed to sell beer, personally.

Ha, maybe I did read it wrong! Saw they had a tasting in April, but for all I know there might be a loophole there. Also not sure on Vermont laws, but I thought I'd read some places were considering allowing some farmer's market sales, so maybe its something that started out like that? Didn't even notice they didn't list an address yet! Although, if you could treat it like a Kickstarter thing where you promised future beer after collecting enough money to get licensed and going, it might be a neat idea to try out.

a local brewer did/is doing pretty much the same thing to raise funds for opening his own location (they were renting space at another brewery). read more here: http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2012/02/like_a_winery_crooked_stave_br.php

however, they do have a license to bottle and sells beers.

Legal?? I don't know...maybe? If I give you a beer when you buy one of my t-shirts is that selling beer? In any case there are many things like this going around the country.

If someone can make it work and stay within legality to do it, more power to them. I just question the value of paying that much money for an unproven brewery's beers.

Phunhog said:

Legal?? I don't know...maybe? If I give you a beer when you buy one of my t-shirts is that selling beer? In any case there are many things like this going around the country.

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I think if someone decided to actually go after you for that you'd have a hard time making a case, but the chances that you'll be targeted are probably pretty low unless you're doing a lot of business. Posting a website about it is probably pushing your luck though.