Legal to trade brew?

[pinchegil]

In colorado it is legal to share it with friends as long as they are 21 or older and their is no law in transporting it as long as it is not to a public place, there is also no law against friends sharing their grain with you so it is a non issue in this state. Which I guess is understandable in a state where people openly sell pot on craigslist.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

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?

Just give the beer away for free then charge $5 per person for restroom access.

 

[Manoau2002]

Friends/Family give each other presents all the time. If I had home brew I could give it to a friend. My friend, (knowing home brewing is my hobby) could give me home brew supplies as a present as well. Just friends giving friends presents. Happens all the time for birthdays, christmas, etc.

That and like others have said, the police are far to busy (and very understaffed) dealing with drug dealers and the like to be bothered with someone who sold six beers to an adult of legal drinking age.

 

[Saunassa]

You bring the steaks, pizza, burgers and I will bring the beer...

 

[Brewernaut51]

If you ask me the OP just sounds like two friends sharing beer.

I give homebrew away all the time and have been asked if I could sell a six pack and even get requests for beers I've brewed in the past. I always say I don't want the ATF to show up at my door. That actually sounds like a solution to me.

Most hobbies can be turned to profit if people like what you make. Shame ours can't.

 

[SEndorf]

I anticipated the responses.
You need to check the laws in your state.
Generally, beer for money (or any other form of consideration) is illegal.
Yes... many aspects of the laws are illogical
Yes... the chances of you getting caught are virtually zero
Sure, friends can buy the grain you need. Here, it's illegal. They've just bought your beer. Simply for me, it's a road I don't want to go down on principal. One thing generally leads to another.
But if you call BS on this, I wouldn't blast it up here.

 

[aprichman]

I anticipated the responses.
You need to check the laws in your state.
Generally, beer for money (or any other form of consideration) is illegal.
Yes... many aspects of the laws are illogical
Yes... the chances of you getting caught are virtually zero
Sure, friends can buy the grain you need. Here, it's illegal. They've just bought your beer. Simply for me, it's a road I don't want to go down on principal. One thing generally leads to another.
But if you call BS on this, I wouldn't blast it up here.

Yeah one minute you're sharing homebrew with friends and the next you are cooking meth in an RV in the deserts of New Mexico.

Watch out for that slippery slope fellows!

 

[Phunhog]

I don’t see a problem. If my buddy buys me beer at the store and I pay him the cost of the beer plus a little extra for his time did we break the law? Is my buddy now an unlicensed alcohol seller? Heck....he didn’t even check my ID! See how ridiculous this argument can get. No one cares if you trade homebrew with your friends.

 

[bpgreen]

Laws vary by state. I live in Utah. I looked into the laws almost a decade ago (when Utah legalized brewing). I can't legally share home brew with anybody except relatives. And I can't take more than a six pack out of my house (for example to a picnic).

Do I think it's likely that these laws will be enforced? No. Am I willing to risk it? Also no.

 

[TwistedGray]

Laws vary by state. I live in Utah. I looked into the laws almost a decade ago (when Utah legalized brewing). I can't legally share home brew with anybody except relatives. And I can't take more than a six pack out of my house (for example to a picnic).

Do I think it's likely that these laws will be enforced? No. Am I willing to risk it? Also no.

What do you do if you were going on a weekend vacation where you wanted to enjoy your homebrew?

 

[bpgreen]

What do you do if you were going on a weekend vacation where you wanted to enjoy your homebrew?

I would forgo enjoying my homebrew. Actually, I'd enjoy 6 of them.

 

[6thGoal]

Wow, just read the statute in California, can brew up to 100 gallons per adult in the household. I'm good for 200 gallons this year and giving away as much as I can to friends.

 

[TwistedGray]

Wonder if you can donate a keg to a brewery for them to give away as samples? California

 

[bpgreen]

Wow, just read the statute in California, can brew up to 100 gallons per adult in the household. I'm good for 200 gallons this year and giving away as much as I can to friends.

As a clarification, you can brew up to 100 gallons per year per adult, but only up to a maximum of 200 gallons total. So if there are 3 adults, the maximum is still 200 gallons. That's a federal limit. Individual states can set a lower limit, but not a higher one. I found something with the home-brew laws for all states:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/financ...me-manufacture-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

 

[bleme]

I went over to a friends house on Saturday afternoon and took potato salad and my latest brew. It wasn't long before he was cracking open a NEIPA he picked up in Massachusetts and put venison burgers on the grill. A little bit later he pulled out a brett sour he picked up from Almanac that was pretty tasty. Then we compared that to his own brett peach sour that's barely a year old, which was even better! Deciding it was a special occasion (I'm still not sure what occasion that was) he pulled out the last 2 bottles of a green apple sour he did 5 years ago so we could compare. That was mighty tasty too! We followed up with a session IPA he keeps tweaking the recipe for, before finally popping open one of the NEBIPA's that I brought over.

The point of this story is that if I kept track, I'd be so far in the hole that I'd never see sunlight again. Fortunately, my friend doesn't keep track either. He seems genuinely happy just to have someone to share a few beers with and get some feedback on what he has been working on. If everyone is worried about keeping the scales balance, you're never going to be able to just relax and enjoy the company.

 

[Lax coach]

What if you sat out in your front lawn giving beer away (checking IDs of course) for free?

In Illinois, you can give away samples (size specified in another regulation I couldn't be bothered to look up) without doing anything else. If you wanted to give away full glasses, you'd need to purchase a $25 permit.

 

[Yooper]

Wonder if you can donate a keg to a brewery for them to give away as samples? California

No- and they probably wouldn't take it. It has to do with taxes and rules on beer/liquor sales. Anyone with a liquor license or a brewery license would steer clear because something like that could mean losing their business.

 

[biochemedic]

"Try to do the right thing, play it straight, but the right thing changes from state to state," as Soul Asylum sang in the early 90's....

I've been fortunate that the past 2 states (NC and PA) I've lived in have become fairly liberal with the beer laws, although PA still has some oddities related to the amount you can buy outside of a "beer distributor" (where you can only buy cases, and used to be the only place you could buy beer...)

The homebrew laws are pretty allowing in both states...you can definitely share homebrew, and as long as it's for charity, it seems it's OK to indirectly sell homebrew. In Charlotte, the annual Oktoberfest is run by the local homebrew club, and other clubs come from all over the state to also serve homebrew. There's easily as much, if not more, homebrew there than there is commercial beer. All of the ticket profit is donated to local charities. In Pittsburgh, one of the two homebrew clubs sponsors a beer event that is almost entirely homebrew, with a few local breweries joining in as well, and the event proceeds all go to the cystic fibrosis foundation in honor of a club member's family member who has the disease...

Both pretty good uses of "sharing" homebrew, if you ask me!

 

[TwistedGray]

No- and they probably wouldn't take it. It has to do with taxes and rules on beer/liquor sales. Anyone with a liquor license or a brewery license would steer clear because something like that could mean losing their business.

So, even if you went to the bar, sat in a corner, and poured out a legal portion of beer for free that, too, would be breaking some law, correct? That's simply because you are in a bar/liquor store/etc, and they have specific laws to abide by?

 

[RustyHorn]

Check the laws for your State. It may be possible that in your State your home brew cannot leave your premises.

Woah. What? Next you'll be telling me that some States still have the death penalty. Imagine that in the 21st Century!

 

[bleme]

So, even if you went to the bar, sat in a corner, and poured out a legal portion of beer for free that, too, would be breaking some law, correct? That's simply because you are in a bar/liquor store/etc, and they have specific laws to abide by?

AB 2172 made it clear that homebrew clubs in California can meet in a bar/brewery/brewpub and share their homebrew, but only with other club members. It specifically prohibits sharing with other patrons.

This was to fix AB1425, which made it legal to donate homebrew to charities but seemed to accidentally make it illegal to have in a bar, almost like nobody bothered to really read it....

 

[TwistedGray]

AB 2172 made it clear that homebrew clubs in California can meet in a bar/brewery/brewpub and share their homebrew, but only with other club members. It specifically prohibits sharing with other patrons.

This was to fix AB1425, which made it legal to donate homebrew to charities but seemed to accidentally make it illegal to have in a bar, almost like nobody bothered to really read it....

So, theoretically you can bring a Homebrew club sign-up sheet with you. As a requirement to accept a free sample they have to provide whatever details your Homebrew club requests. For ours I think it is just contact details (name/email).

 

[ancientmariner52]

All y'all Oklahoma homebrewers: Got your state personal use permits? You're supposed to have one to brew or make wine at home. Anybody?

 

[Yooper]

So, even if you went to the bar, sat in a corner, and poured out a legal portion of beer for free that, too, would be breaking some law, correct? That's simply because you are in a bar/liquor store/etc, and they have specific laws to abide by?

In my state, yes that would be a huge problem, because of the way the laws are. The business would lose their licenses over something like this, and wouldn't risk it. You can't also bring in other commercial beers either, though. No BYO in places that have liquor or beer for sale on premises, and definitely no homebrew.

In your state, it might be ok if it wasn't given to patrons of the establishment.

 

[TwistedGray]

In my state, yes that would be a huge problem, because of the way the laws are. The business would lose their licenses over something like this, and wouldn't risk it. You can't also bring in other commercial beers either, though. No BYO in places that have liquor or beer for sale on premises, and definitely no homebrew.

In your state, it might be ok if it wasn't given to patrons of the establishment.

Yeah, like you said no one would in their right mind would allow that...just curious

 

[Phunhog]

Wonder if you can donate a keg to a brewery for them to give away as samples? California

I have been approached by a craft beer bar owner to do exactly that. Actually he wants to sell it. I asked him specifically about the legality. He kind of rolled his eyes and said it wasn’t a big deal. A five gallon keg goes so fast it would be on tap and done before anyone knew. Plus with the proliferation of craft breweries no one would be the wiser. Now I have not done this. But I have given out samples in a restaurant....actually they might have sold tickets. It was 6-7 years ago. I do remember my wife and I got a free dinner out of the deal.

 

[TwistedGray]

I have been approached by a craft beer bar owner to do exactly that. Actually he wants to sell it. I asked him specifically about the legality. He kind of rolled his eyes and said it wasn’t a big deal. A five gallon keg goes so fast it would be on tap and done before anyone knew. Plus with the proliferation of craft breweries no one would be the wiser. Now I have not done this. But I have given out samples in a restaurant....actually they might have sold tickets. It was 6-7 years ago. I do remember my wife and I got a free dinner out of the deal.

Daresay which state?

 

[Phunhog]

Daresay which state?

California.....the land of a million laws and little enforcement. California has some of the most liberal homebrew laws of any state. I can even sell my Homebrew as long as all proceeds go to a non-Brewing related charity as part of a special event.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

As a clarification, you can brew up to 100 gallons per year per adult, but only up to a maximum of 200 gallons total. So if there are 3 adults, the maximum is still 200 gallons. That's a federal limit. Individual states can set a lower limit, but not a higher one. I found something with the home-brew laws for all states:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/financ...me-manufacture-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

I went through a lot of the rules in this information and it would seem that I’m lucky to live in AZ. Some states get pretty picky about stuff.

 

[itsmymilkyway]

Who cares, Taxation is theft and so are permits Government is just a squealing pig

 

[ancientmariner52]

Who cares, Taxation is theft and so are permits Government is just a squealing pig

Unfortunately, Government is a squealing pig, with the resources and power to hurt you if it chooses, right or wrong. So that's why I care enough to stay out of Governments' sight.

 

[beren]

What if you sat out in your front lawn giving beer away (checking IDs of course) for free?

In 2020 NJ changed it's laws so it's no longer a punishable crime for minors to drink alcohol. https://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/agguide/AG-Interim-Guidance-Marijuana-Decrim-2020-0326.pdf I thought it was more decriminalized than that but I am having trouble finding out more details...


Hmm realized it was a nero post after. Oh well! still good info to have