homebrew give away or sell?

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Is wrong to ask someone to pitch in for drinking your beer

  • I would give away 99% of my beer for free I do it because I love to make it, not drink it.

  • no one else is allowed to drink my beer! I made it, its mine.

  • I think once someon has consumed over 25% of the batch, they should help pay to make the next batch

  • I'm too dnruk to raed rgiht now. :-)


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kunstler

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Ok so I know there are a million and half threads on here of people trying to get around jhonny law, or telling people not to try it, its wrong and gives homebrew a bad name:

But let me ask you this hypothetical question.

Is it wrong to ask someone to "pitch-in" financially towards your brewing escipades if they consume "more than your normal give-away" amounts.

i.e. If you make 5 gallon batches, and someone is constantly coming over and drinking half the keg or going through a case of your bottled beer - would you ask said person to pitch in to your brewing, or just brew more to compensate.

Not saying "lets sell illegally" or anything - nor am I in this position, just curious what the concensus is seeing how there tends to be the relax its only homebrew mentality, but then again doing it to get a superiror product for minimal cost.
 
I would ask someone who consumes 50% of my brew to pay for 50% of my supplies.

I am not selling him beer. He is providing me with supplies and I am making beer for him.
 
I haven't even finished my first batch yet, so I certainly don't have this "problem" yet. That being said, if I had a buddy drinking that much of my supplies, I would expect that he compensate me in some shape. He can buy me more stuff or he can give me cash to buy stuff. Other than that, drink up.
 
I made about 180 gallons this year. I've given away probably 160. I don't brew to charge people or to recoup costs. I brew because I love it. If it is someone who is constantly over at your house, I would hope they might offer to pitch in for grain or whatever, but I would never ask, I refuse to leave out a tip jar, and honestly I don't even really like taking money for ingredients. Just not my style.

If I couldn't afford to brew it all or if I wanted a batch for myself, I'd keep it away from people who might drink it. But I really don't care.

Now, if someone wants to learn how to brew, I will gladly let them buy ingredients and use my equipment. I might keep 4 bottles for myself, but again, I'm not asking for much out of it. I just like spreading the information and the hobby to people I know will enjoy it.
 
If someone is "consuming" around 50% of my homebrew then I'd atleast expect them to pay for half of the ingredients to make the quaffables. But I'd say that it all depends on the arrangement that you've set forth with that person(s). Then on the other hand if I give away my homebrew to someone and receive something like; a sixer of microbrew, or a topped of CO2 tank, or a nice growler or two of brewpub specialties, or welding services, or grain, yeast buys, or help with bottling, or help with brewing, or etc., etc., etc., etc. Then I really don't mind in giving my homebrew away.
 
so far I havent made too many batches of beer, but my friends have most definitely drank more of it then I have personally. Right now I dont care all that much, I do offer it to them alot, but if it continues this way for awhile I may have to start asking for money so I can continue to provide them with homebrew. We are all poor college kids, so I dont think its completely fair that I front the bill (and the time and effort) to make them beer on the house.
 
I have a little "donation box" on my Kegarator. If someone feels they want to donate, they will. Most of the time I'll find a few coins and a couple of bills after a big party. Once I found 2 $20s in there. That was a good party. :D
 
If someone was drinking a significant quantity of my brew on a regular basis I would hand them a shopping list for the LHBS.

Of course, being the nice guy that I am, I would let them choose the style.
 
If they are buying supplies, you are not selling beer.

And anyone who drinks excessive amounts of your homebrew had best be pitching in for supplies. Some guys seem to think that homebrewing is cost-free.
 
If someone was drinking a significant quantity of my brew on a regular basis I would hand them a shopping list for the LHBS.

Of course, being the nice guy that I am, I would let them choose the style.

+1 And ask them when they would like to stop over to brew it, or help anyway. Oh ya, hand them the empty propane tank once in a while too, just so they feel appreciated. But of course that all depends on who that someone is. If that someone does my tax return every year for free, well you know.....
 
I'd start with a 'tip jar' or something, and if that doesn't give them the hint, I'd stop serving them my delicious brew :)
 
Well it depends. If this is your only friend, and the only way they can tolerate hanging out with you is drinking large amounts of beer, well in that case maybe you should be glad for the company.
 
If my friends are mooching beer off of me, then I would most definitely ask them to pay for part of the ingredients. Luckily, I have good friends and they'll always bring good microbrews or bring other stuff as a good gesture. Actually, I've had friends offer to chip in, but I refuse.
 
I have no problem giving my beer away....I just give out a few. If I'm going to a party I'll bring 1 or 2 bombers of my homebrew and a 6pack of something, that way people can have a taste and I don't look like a moocher.

If your friend really likes homebrew so much offer to teach him to brew his own...

:tank:
 
My friends consume most of the beer I brew, and I never ask for money—I'm happy that they like it, and if I didn't want them to drink it I wouldn't offer it to them.

That said, my friends have offered to buy a sack of malt a couple of times, and have refilled my propane a time or two. That's good enough for me.
 
I give away some of my beer in hopes of convincing some of my coworkers to start making some of their own that we can all share. Have one person ready to start and another interested in beer and another interested in wine.
 
Most of my friends don't like "good" beer. I share with my brother and dad, which I'm happy to do, but I'll hoard some to make sure I don't run out.
 
If anyone drank 50% of my stach, I would cut their legs off when they are sleeping and light their house on fire. Then I would lay in a hammock on their front lawn, drinking the other 50% of my homebrew and laughed while they dragged their bloody stumps out of the house!!!!

Sorry about that......it is Wednesday....I drink martini's on Wednesday's and gin makes me nuts.

To respond to the original topic, I have a buddy who loves brewing as much as I and we brew almost every batch together. I welcome his help and he drinks a lot of the beer. I feel it is a fair trade.
 
I bring my beer to parties and whatnot all the time. Well over 25% of my beer is not drunk by me. I suppose if I had one roommate who wasn't my wife that was drinking half of my beer, I'd ask them to contribute.

But there's no way I'm bringing a 12-pack of beer to a friend's house and then asking them to help pay for it.
 
My wife doesn't drink beer, just me. I love brewing, but I can't keep up - so I happily give away a lot of my beer to get critiques, and so I can brew more. However, I share it with a lot of people so I don't ask for some help with the ingredients. If it was just one dude, who didn't brew - and only wanted to drink my beer... Yeah, I'd ask for some reimbursement.
 
I don't mind giving away beer, but I hate scrubbing labels but I give away much of my bottled beer @ work. There I do a dollar deposit on the bottles, and I find that I get back only about half of them. So that at least pays for new empties instead of having to acquire/clean new ones.
 
Out of my 8 beer drinking buddies only three of them will drink good beer. The rest of them like dumping salt into colorado water. The three that like good beer always pitch in and complain when I am not brewing.

But I have to say if they didnt pitch in I would just let them drink it and hit on their girl friends when they pass out (what are friends for)!
 
I like taking my brews to parties or when I go to someone's house for dinner. I figure I'm getting entertained or fed, so it's a fair trade. I also make up sampler packs of my season's beers and give them to my friends and coworkers for Christmas. I don't expect payment for those and mainly enjoy getting the feedback. They are kind enough (or smart enough?) to bring back the empties. Of course, if someone wanted to buy me grain or hops, I wouldn't complain.
 
i let most people drink my beer for free but i am getting friends to buy ingredients and i am brewing for them. this gives me practice, its fun, and i get to keep about a 12 pack for my dome. im about to brew one of my friends a gluten free beer since she is allergic.
 
I have freinds that come over and drink my beer.
They usally will have 2-4 glass's and then i ask them...You spending the night or getting a driver? All my beers start at 6% so this isnt a BMC product. After everyone came over and realised that they cant drink 6-7 beers and drive home, Only a couple people show up here and there now. And no, they dont spend the night.

On the other end of the beer spectrum, I have anouther freind who enjoys making beer as much as i do. He has helped me with 85% of all brewing. Has 1 or 2 beers and calls it good. I make sure i got food on hand and we have a hell of a good time. Never ask for cash. And if he offered i would laugh.
 
Let's put this in diffrent terms to put it in more perspective.

You cook dinner for yourself every day. Everyday a friend comes over and has the meal with you. You end up cooking extra expecting it. So the question in these terms is:

Can you or should you request that the friend pitch in for groceries?

The answer is Hell Yes.

Also, you need not worry about legality here as you may not have a restraunt liscence you are not running a restraunt. You are just asking someone to that enjoys your cooking to pitch in for groceries. If you bring chips and dip to a party would you expect the host to pay you back for them? No.

Now just swap out the situation for beer instead of food. In a small operation it doesn't matter, now if you go supplying frat parties and asking them to pay money for it or even the better part of your supplies then the government would take an interest. It is all about volume and what you are taking away from other businesses when the govenment truely cares. The point where it becomes a "Business Transaction" is where the Law comes in. When it is just friends helping friends or some simple bartering where no money changes hands then it is all "under the table" and therefore not a govenment interst, Unless that bartering is something BIG and you exceed your state's limits for home brewing. In Colorado that is 250 gallons a year. Not easy to reach that level. Unless you have a very large family and all drink. That would be consuming about 5 gallons every week of the year, all but one. Quite a lot of Brew.
 
So far I only have 20 gallons of home brew done.. I have given a fair amount away already as I am not much of a drinker but really like making it. My complaint is BRING MY BOTTLES BACK!!! I have a bunch of old long necks and want them back when they are empty. So far MOST have made it back home but not all.
 
I do not charge or ask for $$ and always try to bring at least a sixer when going to a friends house. SWMBO and I live together so she gets to drink for free and she shares her stuff with me. Homebrewing is my hobby and I am happy to share. I do not have people sucking them down like it is their job and not everyone likes every style that I make at a particular time, except SWMBO that is.

I also like showing off my skillz!!! It is really cool when a craft beer or BMC drinker really likes your beer.Some of my friends love IPA and IIPA and Stouts but do not like Wheats, Belgians or Porters. I do AG and get all my supplies in bulk so the cost is negligible. I get all my bottles from essentially two friends of mine that drink good beer (they get beer every time I go to visit) Now if I were to have bought the Avery Maharaja Close at the LHBS for $110 you know I would be guarding that with my life...lol
 
You cook dinner for yourself every day. Everyday a friend comes over and has the meal with you. You end up cooking extra expecting it. So the question in these terms is:

Can you or should you request that the friend pitch in for groceries?

The answer is Hell Yes.

This attitude is odd to me, but seems prevalent every time this topic comes up.

When I invite people to my home I invite them as guests, not part time cooperative members of the household.
 
When I invite people to my home I invite them as guests, not part time cooperative members of the household.

We're not talking about someone who is over occasionally. We're talking about people who are "eating at your house" 3 or 4 times a week.
 
I let my guests drink unlimited beer at my place, I currently have right around 300 bottles of homebrew sitting around, so I am happy to share it and free up those bottles for new brew!

That being said, I would really like it if some of my "consumers" would in fact start buying me some grain and especially hops. A pound of hops would be such a nice gift.
 
This attitude is odd to me, but seems prevalent every time this topic comes up.

When I invite people to my home I invite them as guests, not part time cooperative members of the household.

Yea, I'm with you on that.

To the others:
Conceivably these people (that somehow have unfettered reign to all of your worldly possessions) also use your bathroom a disproportionate amount of time. Perhaps you should also look into an impact fee.
 
My room mates consume a good portion of my beer. One of them pitches in where he can - for example he bought yeast and bottles for me. I also think I got out of paying utilities this past month.

Right now, I'm not keeping too much track of it since I've only made a few batches, but as I get more into it I'll be a bit more careful about how much I give away to individuals without having them chip in somehow.
 
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