wedding in pa

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BuriedCastle

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a friend has asked me to provide the beverage for his wedding. is anyone familiar enough eith pennsylvania to know if there are issues with doing so? would you consider this an organized tasting event? or would it be selling or distributing? he has offered to cover the cost of all ingredients, but if i did it as the wedding gift, there would be no money involved.

any thoughts? i've stalled him on an answer but i'll need to get started soon if it's going to happen in the spring.

thanks
 
I don't think it is an issue AS LONG AS you do this as a wedding gift. That way you're sharing your homebrew with friends and family, which is how homebrew is supposed to be. Even if he covered the ingredients, you're getting into exchanging money, which is on the dark side of the gray area.

A possible workaround would be to have him buy the ingredients, and then brew WITH him. That way it's his and yours, to give away as you both please. He provides ingredients, you provide equipment, and you make a weekend out of it. Sounds like an awesome pre-wedding event to me. Hope you've got plenty of time before the wedding though.

Pennsylvania has some effed up liquor laws obviously, so stick around for someone who knows them better than me. I lived there, but not since I could drink legally.
 
The LCB can be a pain. I'd double check with the venue as well. But I like the gifting idea, hope it works out.
 
The LCB can be a pain. I'd double check with the venue as well. But I like the gifting idea, hope it works out.

Yeah, I think the venue will be the biggest roadblock. I offered to brew for my brother-in-law's wedding, but he was unable to provide his own beer. I brewed for his rehearsal dinner instead.
 
If the groom pitches the yeast, he's the brewer...

FWIW, cash covers all traces at the LHBS in terms of who bought the ingredients....

In terms of the actual pouring, all you are doing is offering guests the opportunity to consume (for free) your homebrew. No law against that...
 
I would think the venue would be the only obstacle, hard to imagine Law enforcement agency finding out, or really caring.
 
My friends had homebrew at their wedding in PA. At that level, just check with the venue. You may have to supply a jockey box with the correct fittings if they don't have something in the clause stating that the party cannot supply their own booze.
 
You'd think Cops would have better things to do than harass you at a wedding. Wouldn't worry about it. Not like your Al Capone running Boot Leg Canadian Whiskey. Oh yeah! Happy Prohibition Repeal Day!
 
I'm getting married and was unable to find a Venue that would allow me to brew for the wedding. Between the PLCB and liablity issues. It was a resounding "NO". Gifting it on the other had was no issue. Wasn't able to brew for my sisters wedding either and that was a small hall. Just not worth it for the venue. If some one leaves, kills themselves, the venue get's rocked with a suit. It comes back that it was homebrew and it's even worse for them. By by liquor license and probably the business.
 
The venue is going to be your roadblock. Many venue's flat-out refuse to allow alcohol not provided by them. I had the same idea back in 09 at my wedding. They will call it a liability issue, which allows them to charge 300 bucks a keg for BMC.. A backyard wedding wouldn't be a problem, but if you're trying to get hitched at the Hilton (or like) you will probably have to buy the booze from them.

As far as the actual law, I believe it comes down to who is providing and serving the alcohol. My wife has a side gig doing wedding cakes, so we work with many a caterer at private property weddings. They will serve the food, but leave the kegs or bottles (bought by the bride and groom) self serve. Sometimes the bride and groom will ask a friend or family member to play bartender. If you go that route, the caterer will care less if its homebrew or Coores light.
 
as a followup, my friend has said the wedding venue is byob. i don't have more details yet. I also have no experience with kegging. I was thinking kegs would probably work better, but i have only bottle conditioned my beer. i also don'tforesee much kegging in the future so I am undecided if it's worth getting into it for this event
 
That's awesome you found a place that allows it. My sister's fiancé and I were going to brew for the wedding but they were unable to find a suitable location that allowed BYOB.
 
Check with the hall too. They may have contract restrictions (between the hall and yiur friends) about what can be brought in. I'm in the middle of this stuff right now and every venue says "you can only bring in your cake. Everything else, we're going to sell to you at crazy inflated prices. Especially booze."
 
Again, I need to learn to read the whole thing before responding ...
 
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