Just a simple question, i guess at some point when your friends try your beer and like it, they'll ask to buy some. Of course it's illegal, but would it be legal to do a trade? Say like I'll give him a 6 of my brew for a 6 pack of craft beer and it's a deal. Is that legal or still a no no?
Legal to trade brew?
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Legally no.
Accepting cash, goods or services is a not allowed.
In what you describe, beer for beer is still a form of payment.
It's a common scenario - My friends know they can't "buy" my beer.
So they offer to buy supplies. (grain, hops, etc.) or other goodies in exchange. Don't go there.
Accepting cash, goods or services is a not allowed.
In what you describe, beer for beer is still a form of payment.
It's a common scenario - My friends know they can't "buy" my beer.
So they offer to buy supplies. (grain, hops, etc.) or other goodies in exchange. Don't go there.
madscientist451
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Go ahead and trade beer, or anything else if you want to. All you have to do is act like a politician and maintain "plausible deniability".
John Eberly
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Read the legislation in your state. Michigan’s law states clearly that the intent is not to prosecute homebrewers for sharing or trading small volumes of beer. Enforcement is reserved for bulk operations operating outside the license and tax requirements.
If they are your friends, just give it to them. Friendships are naturally balanced, and you'll get it back in other ways anyway.
I give away beer quite often in the form of bottles or just pours when they visit.
I've had requests for kegs (both to buy or trade) that I've turned down. I have offered to let them brew the beer on my equipment using their ingredients and my recipes and tutelage. The results would be the same, just their ingredients and labor. It would be nice to be the person hanging out drinking while someone else brews for a change!
I'm pretty sure that's squarely to the letter of the law but so far no takers.
I've had requests for kegs (both to buy or trade) that I've turned down. I have offered to let them brew the beer on my equipment using their ingredients and my recipes and tutelage. The results would be the same, just their ingredients and labor. It would be nice to be the person hanging out drinking while someone else brews for a change!
I'm pretty sure that's squarely to the letter of the law but so far no takers.
You have a barter system with friends? Intriguing. My friends have never had to have a reason to bring me beer. Oddly enough, even my coworkers share their beer with me from time to time, and I with them. There is no "trade" involved, just "sharing".
I give away beer quite often in the form of bottles or just pours when they visit.
I've had requests for kegs (both to buy or trade) that I've turned down. I have offered to let them brew the beer on my equipment using their ingredients and my recipes and tutelage. The results would be the same, just their ingredients and labor. It would be nice to be the person hanging out drinking while someone else brews for a change!
I did the same thing when friends kept wanting homebrew, and they did show up for an early morning brew session. They didn't make it to the end though. I think for most sane people, the time involvement is a showstopper. But they don't know that until they get involved. Until they see the process, they think you've got the Big Rock Candy Mountain in your backyard, where beer flows from a hole in the ground.
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The OP is talking about trading HB for store beer. The law is designed to clarify exemption for brew clubs (homebrewer to homebrewer).
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Clearly, this is the practical aspect of the question.
Unless folks are dumb enough to set up their "lemonade" stand at the end of their driveway, there really isn't an issue.
But this is the internet....
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I like where you're going.
How 'bout a "bottle rent charge".
You charge them $3.00 per bottle as a rent fee.
They can do anything they want with the bottle as long as it's returned without damage.
Oh... and by the way.. the bottle happens to contain beer.
How 'bout a "bottle rent charge".
You charge them $3.00 per bottle as a rent fee.
They can do anything they want with the bottle as long as it's returned without damage.
Oh... and by the way.. the bottle happens to contain beer.
flars
Well-Known Member
Check the laws for your State. It may be possible that in your State your home brew cannot leave your premises.
OP
OP
El Nino
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Well I have some friends that feel bad for taking stuff for free, so I just suggested if you won't just take a 6 pack, then maybe buy me a 6 of something and we'll call it even. I definitely wouldn't take money from a friend, legal or no.
I love Michigan, such a Homebrew friendly state.
I have traded beer for beer, for my close friends who don't Homebrew but want to give something in return. It's only with ones I trust, and who don't go talking about the transaction after. I don't mind just giving it away either, sooner my beer fridge is empty sooner I can brew some more
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
What if you sat out in your front lawn giving beer away (checking IDs of course) for free?
Andrew Hodgson
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What is this Communist plot?!
TwistedGray
El Jefe Brewing Company
Usually not in the front yard though, lol.
homebrewer_99
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A lot of people do not realize that BARTERING...a product for a service, a service for a service, etc., is TAXABLE and must be claimed on your taxes. The value of the barter/trade is the fuzzy part.
It's easier (more legal) to just give it away.
It's easier (more legal) to just give it away.
Desert_Sky
Since 1998
you can put a damn tip jar on top of your kegerator and take in money if you feel like it. And Im pretty sure everyone here has sold a keg now and then.
You used to be able to sell the weed you grew here too, i think you still can. But whtever, nobody cares about a couple gallons of brew, unless it spills or something. THen its a big deal
You used to be able to sell the weed you grew here too, i think you still can. But whtever, nobody cares about a couple gallons of brew, unless it spills or something. THen its a big deal
In some states, that's legal. In some states, it's not legal to give it away at all.
philly224
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No one is gonna care if you trade six packs to your friends. What could possibly happen?
Oregon (as of 2012, I think) specifies that it is legal to trade homebrew or homemade wine for beer/wine ingredients and equipment. It does really vary by state, although it’s hard to imagine who would bother busting anyone for that.
It would be interesting to know of prosecutions successful or otherwise of homebrewers that wandered into gray areas. Especially where and under what circumstances.
Bet you’d find 0 or close to it.
I looked pretty hard and found one homebrewer that was accused of distilling in a dry county. It sounded like total bull squat because the “still” was a counter-flow chiller. He plead out for misdemeanor possession of alcohol.
ancientmariner52
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I live in a dry county, with two county seats. The northern county seat is wet, inside city limits. So I can brew my own in my back yard (state law trumps county law), but if I want to buy beer, I have to drive 20 miles north. Unless it's a Sunday. State law limits me to brewing max 5% ABV, but there is no enforcement. I can drive 2 miles to a neighboring state and buy cold beer at a gas station or grocery any day of the week. But only 3.2% ABV. If I want anything else, I have to go to a liquor store, if it isn't a Sunday. And they can't sell it cold! I could go on and on. Liquor laws are written by hyper-pious lunatics, crooked politicians, and greedy liquor distributors. Ok, I'm done.
PlexVector
Mellow Goose Brewing
okay...I understood everything but the empty boxcar...
ancientmariner52
Well-Known Member
Can't sleep or ride in a loaded one. The Big Rock Candy Mountain comes from American hobo folklore. Bo's just riding aimlessly and hopelessly were said to be heading for said mountains.
There is certainly an area of the law between something that is definitely justifiably illegal (firing guns out of car windows while driving through town), and that which the government has little interest in seriously enforcing unless it aggravates their constituents or costs them significant (tax) money. People homebrewing and responsibly sharing with their adult friends, for an unknown/presumably zero (wink wink) amount of compensation, falls in the latter, IMHO.
Don't go posting flyers around town that your friend gave you a 6'er of Sierra Nevada for a 6'er of your homebrew, and I doubt that any reasonable person is going to give a **** or make any effort to stop you.
Don't go posting flyers around town that your friend gave you a 6'er of Sierra Nevada for a 6'er of your homebrew, and I doubt that any reasonable person is going to give a **** or make any effort to stop you.
jaybo
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I live in your neighboring state and completely agree with you. Thankfully, the laws here will allow higher ABV in October, so maybe you won't have to drink BMC swill for too much longer..
Ha! Before recreational weed was legal in OR, there was a guy that set up a cart down the street. He was “giving away” weed. He was charging $10 and $20 for the container.Sell them a jar for money and then give them complimentary beer.
This is probably terrible advice and don't do it
The cops left him alone for a long time. Neighbors would complain, he would just move the trailer down the street.
My inlaws we’re visiting from the Midwest. Talk about culture shock.
ancientmariner52
Well-Known Member
I'm looking forward to the change. We had an initiative on the ballot in '16 to standardize the laws statewide. The Little Rock liquor distributors and certain churches poured money into fighting it and it failed.
ancientmariner52
Well-Known Member
Edit: Oklahoma was completely dry from 1907 (statehood) until 1957. Will Rogers said "Oklahoma will stay dry as long as the voters can sober up enough to stagger to the polls." It's the hyprocisy that infuriates me. Who ever heard of a politician or a preacher who wouldn't take a free drink?
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