Homebrew served at a wedding

You can't sell it, so you can't make money on it, per se. I've served beer at a wedding once and it was my pilot into kegging. The groom bought a start-up kit for me.

I'd suppose they could reimburse you for your time, or you could charge a one time admission fee to your homebrew club that's sole purpose is dedicated to weddings.

 

If you are having the reception at a banquet hall that has a liquor license then you might want to check with the banquet manager to determine if the serving of your beer jeopardizes the liquor license. I was not permitted to serve my beer at my daughter's wedding, however, I was able to give a bottle to guests as a takeaway gift. I don't know the law here in Michigan to know if the banquet manager was justified in that decision, but the manager was not comfortable with serving the beer, and I respected that. (Although he was able to serve more beer from the open bar and increase the tab when it came time for me to pay the bill.)

 

More context to the question might help. A lot of things are illegal but are never enforced. One specific thing I wanted to be sure about our wedding venue was that it would be cool to bring our own beer. Able to save money and bring some homebrew.

 

Here are Illinois' laws

Reading the statue it all depends on if you're having it at a licensed venue or not. If so, it gets dicey. If not, no sweat. Why dicey? In reading what's there it seems the only authorized use at a licensed establishment is for a judging with pre-defined judges, unless the ABC wants to look at Sec. 6-36. (c) and say that your wedding hall is a private location that is allowed to have alcohol service.

I suspect your bigger problem is going to be a commercial venue willing to lose out on the booze sales.

 

Don't know the laws over in the mid-west, but best of luck to you if its your wedding.

I made 4 different beers for my wedding (24gal) and the venue couldn't care less. We also purchased the "full open bar" so that probably helped.

 

I served my homebrew (actually the caterer did) at a wedding (in PA). I do not think the venue had a liquor license. Whatever you do, I would recommend not taking any money from anyone for any reason.

 

I had my homebrew served at my wedding in NJ and also at my cousin's wedding in NYC. Neither venue had any issue serving the beer, I just inquired of them beforehand (both weddings had a full open bar as well, so the venue did not lose out on any cash). As stated by others, don't have any money exchange hands. The venue will (should) know the laws.

 

depends on your state. the hotel I got married at in MA would not do it.. which was annoying.... but they did give away the 200+ bombers i brewed as wedding favors, so it wasn't a total loss.

 

I was able to brew up and bottle some beers for my brothers wedding a couple years ago. It was served by a catering company, who had them on ice and would pour them, or serve from the bottle ( I bottle gun'd them, no sediment). No issues were had by anyone, other than the homebrew was near gone before the reception started, due to the 1 hour "pre game" before the wedding at the 2 bars they had set up.

I'd check with your venue first, they'd know the law ( hopefully ), and from there, they can decide if they want to allow it, or not.

 

I agree that this will be your problem if it's at any place that sells alcohol.

 

There are plenty of places that will allow you to bring in your own alcohol and have the caterer sell it. That's what we did for ours! But, some venues will not, and if you already have the reception venue chosen, it's something to look into.

 

I would ask the catering service being used. Typically they have the appropriate license to sell/serve alcohol, but will not sell/serve anything not made at a professional brewery for liability reasons. In all honesty, it's probably just because they'd be loosing out on a heap of alcohol sales.