Beer co-op

[alexnphillips]

Strange question.

Would it be possible to set up a beer co-op. I know there are brewer's co-op's for buying grains and such but I am talking about for distributing beer. I am basically trying to think of a way to get around all the permits/red tape and "sell" some beer.

I imagine it like this. At the beginning of the year we sell shares of a co-op. This would equal 1 keg per batch x say 10 batch's a year. If we were doing a say 3.5 BBL batches we could sell roughly 22 shares.

This way people are "owners" rather than just customers. Seems like if you explained the risks and what goes into it you could skirt the law.

Ideas/thoughts/opinions????

 

[david_42]

Probably wouldn't work legally. About as close as you can get is a brew-on-premise.

 

[Homercidal]

You may not sell your homebrew in any fashion whatsoever. And there are almost always fairly strict restrictions on what you can even give away for free.

 

[Sigafoos]

That seems like the 'chip in to pay for ingredients' taken to the extreme. As in, the minimum is probably ok and no one will take notice, but you'll get your ass in trouble on the scale you're talking about.

 

[Cliff897]

Make it into a church and you can do it all tax free

 

[alexnphillips]

update: Looks like the maximum you are allowed to make per year is 200 gallons per household.

That would probably put a major kink into it. We would probably just have the system be mobile and could do it at a different shareholders house every batch.

 

[lackey2000]

I personally wouldn't have an interest in a beer coop, however, I would have interest in a "time share" top notch brew rig & fermenter.