Selling your Homebrew

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Canadian Brewer

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Hey there guys, I have done a little searching on google and not come up with a satisfactory answer. I work at a bar in Sydney NSW and after bringing a few 6-packs of homebrew (my first actually) the boss asked if I would be interested in making a couple cases to sell in the bar. I do not have the funds or space at home to operate a kegging system at the moment, so everything in being bottle conditioned.

My question is what are the legal requirements to actually produce beer for public consumption? I am nowhere near micro brewery level as I am currently brewing in my kitchen with a 40L kettle! I have a sinking suspicion that such an environment can not be certified as "food safe" but I would love to hear from anyone who has any knowledge about this sort of thing.

Thanks for any and all info!
 
Absolutly illegall.

You have to get a licence from NSW OLGR, then permission from the tax office. Can be done but not overly easy.

If you get caught without a licence your as good as fucked.
 
Sadly, the answer is no. Your home brew is just for you and people that you give it to for free to enjoy.
 
Give the beer away for free with food the bar might be charging for.

I don't know if there are any laws against clgiving beer away in a licensed premises...
 
Sadly this is kind of what I was expecting which is unfortunate as I might have had access to our in-house graphics designer for some labels : (

Anyway, thanks for the advice. The next batch will be all for me and my buddies!
 
What if you sold peanuts at the bar.
$6 per peanut with a free homemade beverage with each peanut.
How many laws & licenses does that break?
 
Even though you're giving away the beer for free with a peanut it would still be considered selling beer.
Pretty sure I've seen some sort of law or legislation prohibiting this (or maybe it was just someone rambling without any backup on here, so don't quote me on this), I think it was in relation of a HBS owner giving away free beer in order to close a sale or something like that.

Either way, I wouldn't go there and wouldn't put my boss into that situation either even if he is gullible enough to not care.

EDIT: added disclaimer in brackets
 
technobabble66 said:
What if you sold peanuts at the bar.
$6 per peanut with a free homemade beverage with each peanut.
How many laws & licenses does that break?
haha, reminds me of a mate who used to buy tickets for big sporting events and concerts and then sell a can of coke on ebay, with the winner getting a 'free ticket to whatever event' it was thrown in. made a killing.
 
Florian said:
Even though you're giving away the beer for free with a peanut it would still be considered selling beer.
Pretty sure I've seen some sort of law or legislation prohibiting this (or maybe it was just someone rambling without any backup on here, so don't quote me on this), I think it was in relation of a HBS owner giving away free beer in order to close a sale or something like that.

Either way, I wouldn't go there and wouldn't put my boss into that situation either even if he is gullible enough to not care.

EDIT: added disclaimer in brackets
The terms "indirect selling"
The liquor licensing mob are a fairly switched on bunch who know all the tricks.
 
Nibbo said:
The terms "indirect selling"
The liquor licensing mob are a fairly switched on bunch who know all the tricks.
Except monopolising taps in pubs/bars, apparently... :icon_offtopic:

Is there a quote or link of the regulations anyone wants to put forward? I kinda assumed it wouldn't be viable, but i'm curious.
 
wynnum1 said:
Your beer can be produced by a legal micro brewery and then sold.
+1 for this
This is exactly what my local have done, teamed up with Black Duck Brewery at Port Macquarie and had their homebrew recipe brewed for them
Might not be a huge profit, but it gets your beer and name out there and if people are interested, you can build your name even further from there
 
indica86 said:
Get the boss to buy a Braumeister.
I wasn't aware a Braumeister came with a free set of relative authorisations to produce and sell alcohol
 
NewtownClown said:
I wasn't aware a Braumeister came with a free set of relative authorisations to produce alcohol
And I clearly stated it did?
 
A friend recently asked about this and contacted the ATO for more details.

This is their reply to his enquiry, he decided not to proceed:

---------------

Thanks for your enquiry about selling your home brewed beer. Unfortunately it is not legal to sell home brewed beer commercially under any circumstances.

There are no fees for the licence itself, so the costs involved are in setting up the brewery to the standard required. We do not licence breweries in advance, so you will need to have all your equipment, records, security etc in place before you apply. It is therefore advisable to check state and local government regulations prior to applying to us for the licence. We usually will make a decision on your application within 28 days of receiving a complete application - however this means that all the attachments and other information have been provided in full when you apply. If the case officer needs you to provide further information, the 28 days begins only when we have received all the further information.

You may want to read other information available on our web-site here: http://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Excise/%C2 Please also feel free to call us on 1300 137 290 (alcohol option) if you have any questions while working through the information above. This number will put you through to Licensing rather than the ATO generally. If you are requested to leave a message because we are all on calls, we will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you wish to sell commercially, even on a small scale, you will need to meet the requirements and be granted a manufacturer's licence for your brewery. The form is available here: http://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Licence-to-manufacture-alcohol/

Please also take a look at the requirements for record keeping for breweries, which are extensive: http://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Excise/In-detail/Record-keeping/Record-keeping-and-related-requirements-for-breweries/

You should also take a look at the requirements for alcohol strength testing and alcohol volume testing:
Strength - http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?Docid=ELD/ED20091/00001
Volume - http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?Docid=ELD/ED20092/00001

You will also need to complete these background check forms:
Company (for the company holding the licence, as applicable) - http://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Consent-to-obtain-information---company/
Individual (for all the directors and senior managers of the company holding the licence) - http://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Consent-to-obtain-information---individual/
Criminal history check (for all staff who will have unsupervised access to the brewery and / or its records) - http://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Consent-to-criminal-history-record-check/

You can find the excise rates applicable to beer here (scroll down to the table): http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?Docid=PAC/BL030002/1&PiT=99991231235958%C2 Please be aware they are reviewed and may change on the 1 Feb and 1 Aug each year.
Information on excise returns is here: http://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Excise/Lodging-excise-returns-and-paying-duty/%C2 Excise returns are usually processed within 48 hours, Monday to Friday, during business hours and excluding public holidays. Usually you will start on prepayment excise returns until you are familiar with excise requirements.
 
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