Selling Homebrew Recipes

Anyone know the legality of selling/licensing a microbrewery a homebrew recipe of mine? I know their brewpub cannot sell my beer but I can't see why they couldn't use the recipe. Kind of a sudo-contract brew? Thoughts?

you cant copy right a recipe, there fore that recipe is technicaly not worth anything. the brew pub can use your recipe but that doesnt mean that you own the recipe

Although you can't get US copyright protection for a recipe you can still sell or lease the recipe to the brewpub.

Ask for $15,000 a year or $30,000 outright

If it's a serious matter, get a lawyer. Embed the lawyer fees into your selling price. Or negotiate free beer as a part of the sell.

What if you agree to brew it for them and they pay you for labor then a slice of the profits from said sales!?

Feasibly I would think your only options would be to sell the recipe or contract out your services brewing it (however contracting yourself out could be difficult since you wouldn't necessarily be familiar or comfortable with brewing on their commercial rig). As stated above, you can't copyright the recipe (although that doesn't mean it isn't worth anything), so once someone else has it you can't really retain the rights to it. Nothing theoretically would stop them from just coming up with a recipe on their own that they think is similar, but if they're willing to buy it and you're willing to sell it I don't see why that would be illegal on any level. It's really not any different than selling a cookbook.

It's legal at least in some jurisdictions, since Boston Brewing Company pays a $5000 royalty to Longshot winners.

However, in general, beer recipes are pretty close to worthless (if you are Jamil Zainesheff, about 20 cents a piece I guess).

remilard said:

It's legal at least in some jurisdictions, since Boston Brewing Company pays a $5000 royalty to Longshot winners.

However, in general, beer recipes are pretty close to worthless (if you are Jamil Zainesheff, about 20 cents a piece I guess).

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Well, if you're Jamil you could put all the recipes in a book, and make enough to break even.

If a brewpub is willing to buy a recipe, then do it QUICK! I mean, recipes aren't proprietary and are easy to come up with. It's not like the formula for coca cola or anything. In fact, many of us put up some great recipes on the internet for free!

Any good brewer can make a great recipe, so if a brewpub doesn't have a brewer that can do it they're in serious trouble.

dosbrohahs said:

Kind of a sudo-contract brew

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Is that where you sign a contract as root?

CDbrews said:

you cant copy right a recipe, there fore that recipe is technicaly not worth anything.

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Tell that to Coca-Cola.

Personally, I would much prefer having my name on the beer. Many of the craft breweries around here are following Widmer's Collaborator project. Competition winners get to brew a batch on a commercial system and when it hits the bars, your name goes with it.

Interesting idea just came to mind!

Maybe do a Brewery co-op that does 50% its beer, 50% collaborator beer. Might be a way to get great homebrewers some recognition. Thought?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dosbrohahs
Kind of a sudo-contract brew

weirdboy said:

Is that where you sign a contract as root?

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depends on the shell you use - i prefer MASH!

brewmonk said:

Quote:
Originally Posted by dosbrohahs
Kind of a sudo-contract brew






depends on the shell you use - i prefer MASH!

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hahaha, wow, I am scared by the fact that I am laughing at this

dosbrohahs said:

Interesting idea just came to mind!

Maybe do a Brewery co-op that does 50% its beer, 50% collaborator beer. Might be a way to get great homebrewers some recognition. Thought?

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I like this idea very much I think a local bar here who prides themselves on craft beer would be down with this sickness

Make me a sandwich.

seriously what does that mean?