That is an interesting way of looking at it and it actually makes sense. You are selling a service NOT a product. It reminds me of wealthy people who have "staff" like personal chefs. The chef is hired to prepare meals in a private home. The employer buys the food.....the chef is paid to prepare the food. The same could be said for brewing. The employer buys all the raw ingredients and the brewer is paid to brew the beer in a private residence. Heck....if you wanted to really get technical the "employer" could pitch the yeast and then you really have no issues.
Can you get paid for home brewing beer
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That is an interesting way of looking at it and it actually makes sense. You are selling a service NOT a product. It reminds me of wealthy people who have "staff" like personal chefs. The chef is hired to prepare meals in a private home. The employer buys the food.....the chef is paid to prepare the food. The same could be said for brewing. The employer buys all the raw ingredients and the brewer is paid to brew the beer in a private residence. Heck....if you wanted to really get technical the "employer" could pitch the yeast and then you really have no issues.
2 things to be aware of:
1) If you are being paid for making anything a person will injest you have to have insurance coverage in case your ingredients make a person sick. Even if it is an allergic reaction, you made it and you got paid to make it.
2) if you are being compensated for labor only and the person pays for all of the materials (note they are buying the materials, not paying you back for them. If you are being paid back for materials you fall under point number 1) you are at the bare minimum providing a service for payment in the food industry. You need to have a yearly inspection of your brewing equipment and also where you store it by a health inspector.
1) If you are being paid for making anything a person will injest you have to have insurance coverage in case your ingredients make a person sick. Even if it is an allergic reaction, you made it and you got paid to make it.
2) if you are being compensated for labor only and the person pays for all of the materials (note they are buying the materials, not paying you back for them. If you are being paid back for materials you fall under point number 1) you are at the bare minimum providing a service for payment in the food industry. You need to have a yearly inspection of your brewing equipment and also where you store it by a health inspector.
Hamaki
Well-Known Member
I notice this post on Craigslist that's been around awhile http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/for/4631935662.html. A person might contact them to ask if they've done any research on the legality of advertising to sell beer making lessons, including ingredients, at your place or theirs.
MaddBaggins
cervisiam vitae
Teach your friend to brew.
I'm glad I still live in a world where people can sell homemade decorated cakes on the side and kids can have lemonade stands without having to worry about getting sued because they don't have a food safety permit and umbrella insurance. It must suck to live in Lawyertown where children can't cut your grass until you provide them a set of steel toe boots and eye protection, and people feel worried to the point where they look up local policies on yard sales.
HarborTownBrewing
Well-Known Member
Last I looked into it, you could not receive compensation OF ANY KIND for homebrew - at least not without proper licensing, inspections, etc. In my case, I believe it was +$900 for the licensing.
We can get into the legalities of where yeast is pitched (someone offered to sell my beer on tap, as long as I pitched yeast in his FDA inspected kitchen) but....
The bottom line: it is hardly profitable to ever sell homebrew unless you have a veeeeery sweet, efficient set up. I've done the math something like this (with somewhat general numbers):
$40 for ingredients
$15 for bottles you won't get back
=$55 in material cost.
Labor: 6 hrs brewing, 2 hrs bottling = 8 hrs total time
Let's say you sell 50 bottles for $100 (thus they pay $2 per bottle, which obviously is on the high-middle end of a craft 6 pack). Subtract the materials, you have $45 in profit. Divide that by your labor, you receive $5.63/hr.
We can get into the legalities of where yeast is pitched (someone offered to sell my beer on tap, as long as I pitched yeast in his FDA inspected kitchen) but....
The bottom line: it is hardly profitable to ever sell homebrew unless you have a veeeeery sweet, efficient set up. I've done the math something like this (with somewhat general numbers):
$40 for ingredients
$15 for bottles you won't get back
=$55 in material cost.
Labor: 6 hrs brewing, 2 hrs bottling = 8 hrs total time
Let's say you sell 50 bottles for $100 (thus they pay $2 per bottle, which obviously is on the high-middle end of a craft 6 pack). Subtract the materials, you have $45 in profit. Divide that by your labor, you receive $5.63/hr.
It's prboably illegal, but nobody is going to give a damn unless you try to turn it into a business. I sell my friends 6 packs of my beer for the cost of bottles and I'm not in the least bit worried.
Hamaki
Well-Known Member
On the other hand, **** happens. My son was doing some odd jobs for a disabled couple including splitting firewood. A log somehow popped up & broke off a couple of his teeth. If we didn't have good health insurance we'd have needed to look to those that hired him to help with the costs. One would think if that were the case they'd step up & do what they could to help cover the cost, but people can be funny...or broke.
isnt it against the law to share/give your beer? i dont know id go that route. id think id do it at his house and let him pitch the yeast then help him bottle.
Just some clips of posts made already that stand out. Just in case you missed them.
Clonefan94
Senior Member
To answer your question, "Can you get paid to homebrew beer?" NO.
Sure there are plenty of things you can say that make you feel better about skirting laws, but in the end, no you can not brew beer at home and get paid for it. This has been discussed ad nauseam on this site. If you get paid any way shape or form, it is no longer homebrewing and therefore becomes a commercial operation.
Sorry to be such a downer, but every skirting the law option above has been mentioned and all have been proven to be false assumptions.
Basically, you either make beer for fun or you make beer for money. There is no in between.
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Sure there are plenty of things you can say that make you feel better about skirting laws, but in the end, no you can not brew beer at home and get paid for it. This has been discussed ad nauseam on this site. If you get paid any way shape or form, it is no longer homebrewing and therefore becomes a commercial operation.
Sorry to be such a downer, but every skirting the law option above has been mentioned and all have been proven to be false assumptions.
Basically, you either make beer for fun or you make beer for money. There is no in between.
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
In some states, yes. In some states, it is illegal to take homebrew out of your home where it was brewed, and can't even take it to your own vacation home or campsite.
In some states, you can give a limited amount of homebrew away per year to a friend, but not in others.
In no cases is it legal to sell or barter for homebrew. I know we've tried to make this into a gray area, but it isn't. Believe it or not, the Treasury Department and the ATF are not as stupid as they are made out to be, and the intent would be recognized.
The odds of getting caught are not great- just like with speeding most people do it and don't get caught but it doesn't make it legal.
Since we do not condone discussion of illegal activity, and we have about ten thousand posts already discussing "creative" ways to try to pretend to make it pseudo-legal, this conversation is not productive.
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