What makes your beer OK to sell?

[ian]

I was just curious, I'm assuming that you need to have someone come and verify that you're sanitary and that the ingredients are sound. Probably some sort of Health and Environmental Control certificate would need to be issued.

I was just curious what one would need to do to sell their homemade beer.

Again, just curious, I'm new to homebrewing and wondering aloud.

 

[Janx]

Nah. The single most important thing is that you paid your taxes. Taxes are the reason homebrewing was illegal until the 80s and the reason that making booze is still illegal.

In order to make sure you pay your taxes, they run background checks on you, make you own government standard measuring tanks, have labels with certain warnings and information, all approved by the government. Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc ad nauseum. It's an enourmous beurocratic pile of craziness.

Sanitation really isn't central to the licensing. It's not like dairy products where infection can kill thousands of people. I've had commercial brews with low-grade infections before many times. It's all about the taxman gettin' his chedda!

Cheers

 

[vtfan99]

Federal laws and State laws are the biggest thing. In some states you have to be licensed out the wazoo while in others you don't. I'm fairly certain that no matter where you live you will need some type of license to sell your beer. Some states require a middle man (distributor). There are even some states where its not expressly legal to homebrew.....now that would suck.

 

[ian]

Seriously? That's really all there is to it?

 

[cowain]

I believe all of the states require you to go through licensing with the local ABC. If you plan on operating a brew pub, this means filling out certain forms and if you plan on selling your beer (instead of serving it in a pub) you usually will need the middle man (can be yourself in corporate form, I think) as a distributor and maybe even another entity to sell to the end consumer. Each of these entities requires proper licensing and like Janx said, taxes.

 

[Shmohel]

Seriously? That's really all there is to it?

HAHA....that's all? It is a mountain of paperwork and a lot of hassle in time/money to get liscenced. All sorts of background checks, etc. Then, you would need liscencing for distribution, etc.

Unless you plan on being a commercial brewery, seems like a lot of work/money for a homebrewer.

 

[El Pistolero]

I was just curious what one would need to do to sell their homemade beer.

Everything mentioned above, plus...it has to be good beer

 

[ian]

HAHA....that's all? It is a mountain of paperwork and a lot of hassle in time/money to get liscenced. All sorts of background checks, etc. Then, you would need liscencing for distribution, etc.

Unless you plan on being a commercial brewery, seems like a lot of work/money for a homebrewer.

I was just wondering . . . again, thinking out loud

 

[Shmohel]

I was just wondering . . . again, thinking out loud

I am looking into it for myself. I plan to spend the next 5-8 years of my life putting together a good business model and raising the necessary funds to open my own brew pub. Be curious.

 

[brewhead]

your local zoning board - liscensing and permiting dept should be able to point you in the right direction