MSM Brewing Club

Something that might have broader appeal is an ongoing thread that addresses homebrew clubs in general. I'm not sure how many clubs are represented among the BAs. For me BA is a place to go because I don't have a local club.

If you want to start a MSM vanity project, I think a blog would be the appropriate way to go.

 

You can't sell beer, but you can take donations and you can sell Solo cups.

 

Before you collect any money from anyone who will be drinking your beer, regardless of how cleverly the transactions are described, I recommend you consult a lawyer.

 

How big are your batches? Because $200 should get you at least 20 gallons of beer.

Give some more details and we can make some money saving suggestions.

Totally agree with @VikeMan, I would be very careful of collecting money for beer. If your club doesn't have enough people who are interested enough in brewing to kick in $10 for their share of beer, then you don't really have a club.

 

That is still a lot of money for ~20 gallons.

If you want to make this club a going concern, you need to think about buying in bulk. You can get a 55-55 pound sack of grain for less than $100 and a pound of hops for ~$15, that would be enough for ~30 gallons of pale ale, then all you need is a couple packs of dry yeast. Of course to do this, you need a grain mill, but those last forever, i.e. a perfect thing for a club to buy with university dollars.

 

My local club costs $25/year. This covers insurance and some food at monthly meetings. Everyone is in charge of buying their ingredients for group Brews or experiments. We've done a yeast experiment (same Grain and hops different saison Yeast) and grain (same hops and yeast different Grains) . We're just starting to get into fundraising. Some ideas pitched were t-shirt sales or a silent auction. My opinion is that if the group is truly into brewing then buying their own ingredients should not be an issue. You also need to think about if you are setup as a non profit. The money raised will need to go somewhere and possibly reported to the IRS.

 

What happened to the Saison yeast comparison your club did?

 

It's still illegal. You can not sell beer or swap it for something else legally. Be careful about what you say, the beer police are watching this thread.

 

You could make one of those GoFundMe pages to solicit random donations. It could go something like this:

Yeah so, we are broke college students in rural Maryland who want to make beer as a collective, but we can't afford to make beer in the quantity we want to make. Your generous and modest donations would enable us to make and drink beer and prevent us from making any financial sacrifices to afford this hobby.

Believe it or not, people will give you money there with that paragraph. Someone out there wants you to make beer. Expect zero donations from users here.

 

I'm just going to say that I can see where @largemanlagerfan is coming from. Colleges attract people from diverse economic backgrounds. On the one hand, it's fair to say that if you want to brew, you should be willing to pay the (relatively modest) costs associated with the activity. But on the other hand, the ideal in a college setting is for participation in social activities to be dictated solely by enthusiasm, not by economic constraints. If there is a kid who wants to participate, but really can't justify the expense given his/her limited means, it would be a shame not to be able to accommodate him/her.

That said, @largemanlagerfan, no one on this site is going to tell you it's okay to exchange homebrewed beer for any consideration whatsoever, whether for cash or for barter. Only a lawyer can tell you where the legal boundaries are, and hiring a lawyer would substantially defeat the purpose of your question. So unless you can find a lawyer who is willing to represent your club pro bono, I'm afraid using the beer to help finance your activities is pretty much a non-starter. (Anyway I suspect even if you did hire a lawyer, the answer would be, "Don't even think about it.")

My suggestion is to ask local businesses for sponsorship. Or you could even reach out to local or regional breweries to see if they will help you out (and by the way, they buy grain in bulk, and so an in-kind contribution may be an especially attractive option - and this is even more true of yeast, if you are willing to show up with a sanitized container). [Edited to add: a quick Google search reveals quite a few small breweries within a 15-20 mile radius of your university.]

You have two things going for you: (1) you would be asking for a very small amount of money (I presume), and (2) your club represents a very targeted segment of the population, one that certain businesses really want to reach. Go around to the local bars and say that you're looking for a small sponsorship so that you can get more people interested in beer. Mention that you also need to find a bar where you can hold your monthly (weekly?) meetings (which could be held on what would otherwise be a slow night). Be sure to talk up your sponsor whenever you hold group events. Everyone wins.

 

We had 14 or 15 different strains, and it was great to taste the differences between the differing strains. Even like strains from White Labs and Wyeast still had slightly different ester character. Also, to see what strains really dried out and finished great, while others seemed to stall.

Of course after a while it was hard to taste the subtle nuances, but overall a really positive experience

 

Does your club have a faculty adviser? Does your school have a law school? Perhaps you could approach them for assistance?

 

It appears the university does not have a law school.

I just want to make an observation about legal advice, not really specific to homebrewing. This will be of limited relevance to anyone but @largemanlagerfan, but I think it's important.

Informally, a lot of people depend on basic internet searches to figure out the answers to legal questions, and often you can find informal analysis of the law that has been provided by some kind of organization for the public's benefit. For instance, the AHA informs me that homebrewing is "possibly permitted" in New York State, where I live. Good enough for me! Similarly, a law student can pretty easily help you out if all you want is a basic summary of the law. (Whether the law student can do that legally is another question, but in daily life it's not an uncommon thing.)

But when you are asking someone to draw a precise line between what is legal and what is illegal, you are asking a question that is difficult and that potentially has very serious consequences. As a result, the practice of law requires a license. If an employee at your LHBS tells you to use a pound of DME for a starter, or tells you to substitute carawheat for white wheat malt, your only recourse is not to shop at that store again. If a lawyer gives you bad advice, you can sue him. If he gives you bad advice because of an ethical lapse (for instance, an undisclosed conflict of interest), you can potentially end his career. And not just by ruining his reputation, but by getting him disbarred so that it is illegal for him to practice law.

All of this is by way of saying, there's a world of difference between (A) getting some informal input from a law student or law professor, and (B) getting actual legal advice from a lawyer who has ethical duties to you. When you're navigating something like the federal alcohol laws, you really want to go with option (B). It's too bad, in a way, because lawyers are expensive, but on the other hand, some of the most expensive legal advice you'll ever get is available for free on the internet. Just ask Wesley Snipes.

 

Given this quote, you may not be interested in the following. Raising money for a club is completely different from brewing the most beer possible with the least amount of money. It is entirely possible that I have misinterpreted the "point" of the club. With that said,...


I'm going to repeat what I said above. And I say this as a faculty member of a large state university.

Colleges and Universities love to fund student organizations/clubs. They especially love it if the clubs use the college money ($200) to set them selves up for success in the future, i.e. don't come begging for money money at a later date Get the most money you can up front.

It sounds like you have some brewing equipment and an advisor who has at least a clue about brewing. What you need to do is use the college money wisely so that any member contributions lead to the most beer possible for the members. Buy things like fermenters and grain mills that last forever and then use small member contributions to brew lots of beer. If the college contributes enough money, each member could easily walk away from a brew session with beer that is priced like natty light but tastes a lot better. If you can get a local brewery to sponsor your club then you are totally set up for success.

To give a little motivation, a 55# sack of grain and a pound of hops and some yeast is less than $100. This can be turned into ~30 gallons of beer or ~26 twelve-packs or ~$4/12 beers AND you get to brew your own beer

The expensive thing about brewing is the startup or equipment cost, get the college to pay for that and even a poor college student can afford the ingredient costs. And there is no legal issue of selling beer or trading ingredients for beer or ... Trust me, this is the answer you are looking for $4 for a 12 of an APA is a pretty sweet deal.

 

As I understand the applicable (federal) law, no, you can't. But I'll repeat my original advice...consult a lawyer.

Do you have farmers in Maryland that malt their own barley? It sounds unlikely, but I dunno for sure. Local hops, maybe, but you'd have to catch them at exactly the right time (fall harvest).

The IRS would be the least of your worries. I'd be concerned about the BATF and State authorities. (It's not about profit, it's about making/selling alcohol without a license to make/sell alcohol.)