Selling beer

[squirrelly]

It's true that even most homebrewing laws don't make a lick of sense. I can't remember which state off the top of my head, but I heard from a fellow brewer that it is illegal to transport your homebrew across the street to share with your neighbor. In AL it is still against the law to brew your own beer at home. Luckily the AHA is fighting tooth and nail against a lot of this nonsense.

 

[Weizenwerks]

Since you brew commercially, I'd have to defer to you. But I've lived in apartments where the whole building was zoned commercial. Both uses are perfectly legal in NYC.

There are different classes or types of commercial zoning. Breweries need to be permitted as some class of industrial commercial, like light industrial, heavy industrial, hazardous industrial. Apartment buildings and rentals are usually classified as commercial residential, meaning it's business property rented or leased for people to live in. They are a separate class of zoning. Each municipality has their own titles.

How could they deny a permit to open a brewery in a commercial building with living space if it is legally zoned for commercial use in the locality?

Because it's the type of commercial zoning class that matters. A brewery is a beer manufacturer and needs to be zoned as industrial commercial. The ATF has denied licenses to breweries with apartments above the premises, like turn of the 19th century style storefronts with living quarters above.

My village has no zoning ordinances and I had a hell of a time with the ATF because the "Zone" field on the property title shows "N/A", not applicable. I had to contact my state representative and federal judge to force ATF to default to county zoning regulations and issue my brewery license.

 

[Weizenwerks]

I can't remember which state off the top of my head, but I heard from a fellow brewer that it is illegal to transport your homebrew across the street to share with your neighbor.

I think that was Washington or Oregon. I remember them talking about it earlier this year on The Brewing Network. Basically homebrew has to stay in the home it was brewed in. The law got changed to allow it for tasting and stuff.

 

[KevinM]

Pretty sure it was Oregon. It was pretty funny as a major beer state and there was that small "oops" moment when people figured out that it was illegal to have homebrew travel even for contests. It was changed pretty quickly at least.

Yup, Oregon http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-09-homebrew09_ST_N.htm

 

[Phunhog]

It's true that even most homebrewing laws don't make a lick of sense. I can't remember which state off the top of my head, but I heard from a fellow brewer that it is illegal to transport your homebrew across the street to share with your neighbor. In AL it is still against the law to brew your own beer at home. Luckily the AHA is fighting tooth and nail against a lot of this nonsense.[/QUOTE

This one of the reasons why I am an AHA member, to get rid of some of the antiquated laws pertaining to homebrewing. But lets face it....most of these laws aren't even on the radar of most politicians.

 

[Zak]

So I manage a resturant and this year for x-mass I made every one beer. My boss liked it so much he came to me about makeing some for the resturant... Dose any one know what restrictions there are as far as the resturant selling my beer.

#1 - Check into state laws. If you have seen beer wars ( if you haven't you should, it's on Hulu and Netflicks) it goes into the the 3 tier system ( brewer, distributor, retailer) which is in place from the federal government. The qualifications of when a brewer can skip the distributor varies state to state (if I remember correctly there is a brew pup in Austin that is currently fighting Texas's beer laws cause they can't directly serve their beer to the public) Some states have exceptions for skipping the distributor if you brew below a certain amount a year, some states it doesn't matter aka any beer sold has to go through a distributor. Once you figure out is you can legally sell beer by state law at your restaurant proceed to #2


#2 - I'm pretty sure in order be able to sell the beer you make you need to have a federal brewers license. Quite simply, no selling beer if the fed doesn't ok it. Now pending on the request, if you do get a license to brew "commercially" , it can still have limitations. For example, if the plan is to keep things in house, you might get a nano-brewery license which limit's you to the amount you can make. It may be easier to get a nanobrewey license as apposed to a microbrewery one, but then you are limited to 4 or less barrels or production.

 

[rico567]

I just find the laws/regulations that affect homebrewing and alcohol in general fascinating. So many of them are not based on any sort of common sense or reasoning. It seems that many of them don't change until people challenge them.
I dig the blog!! Brewing As Art seems like a very cool group!

Challenge away; it's the law, and in the aftermath you may be taking a federally funded vacation along with two of our Illinois governors.

It's got nothing to do with brewing, and everything to do with the law; nothing has changed about that since laws were invented, and you needn't fear this will change in your lifetime. Brew on.


"The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because
they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they
have no other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often
made by fools; still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality,
fail in equity; but always by men, vain and irresolute authors."

- Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

 

[bottlebomber]

One of the crucial differences between brewing and distilling is that with distillation there is a real fire hazard. And to be honest, if some of the people I see on this forum took their bad practices to a still, I'd be a little nervous to have them as neighbors.

 

[Phunhog]

Challenge away; it's the law, and in the aftermath you may be taking a federally funded vacation along with two of our Illinois governors.

It's got nothing to do with brewing, and everything to do with the law; nothing has changed about that since laws were invented, and you needn't fear this will change in your lifetime. Brew on.


That is what I mean!! Many of the laws pertaining to alcohol and homebrewing lack any common sense. When people challenge these laws ,expose these laws, politicians take notice. Look at what happened in Oregon they got the homebrewing law changed AFTER they were called out on the carpet and had their event cancelled. I doubt if the law would have ever been changed unless it was challenged by homebrewers.

 

[Zak]

That is what I mean!! Many of the laws pertaining to alcohol and homebrewing lack any common sense. When people challenge these laws ,expose these laws, politicians take notice. Look at what happened in Oregon they got the homebrewing law changed AFTER they were called out on the carpet and had their event cancelled. I doubt if the law would have ever been changed unless it was challenged by homebrewers.

You just want to make sure you go about challenging the laws in the right way

 

[TAPPOOL]

Anyone see the last episode of Moonshiners where Tim (the moonshiner) went to a old shiner that went legit and he showed him what was involved? The equipment and paperwork was incredible to go legit. He needed a $200,000 bond just to get started. From the look on his face, he was going back in the woods...lol.