Two part question - homebrews in public establishments and getting sick from beer

The only beers that harbor bacteria or things that would harm you more than a commercial beer will smell/taste so bad you couldn't possibly imbibe enough to get sick.

Why not just show up at a homebrew club meeting? There are like 20 in the greater denver area...

 

Dad & Dudes started with a homebrew idea like that, but they seem to have scrapped it. I'm not 100%, but I believe the idea was to have homebrewers actually use their equipment to make beers to be served in the restaurant...then they just changed it over to using their recipes, which several other places do. Kind of like a Pro-Am type of thing.

At this point, I have no clue what they're doing over there although I can only imagine their contract with Prost has to make their beers better. They started off being good but fell off big time.

 

As I understood/understand it - the issue that comes into play is ensuring taxes are paid on any served alcoholic drinks. There have been a few events that I've seen where, so long as the beer is brewed (and I think - fermented/racked/etc) on premises; it can be served legally. If its a homebrew bottle share, I believe it has to be designated as a "special/private event".

If you're above around 2% ABV, the alcohol will kill off the bad (botulism for example) bacteria. You may react negatively to the yeast and it may taste/smell awful but one of the main reasons for brewing was to provide safe drinking options.

 

Beer is safer than water to drink in terms of bacteria. If people are getting sick I would look at what food they are eating before I would blame the beer.

 

Where did you get the 2% number, because that is absolute fiction. Non-alcoholic beer doesn't spoil.

 

and after. I know i tend get the munchies after a beer or 3, and thats when I eat questionable-er food.

 

Our homebrew club is doing a fundraiser. We were told we couldn't sell our beer but could serve it for free at the event, and take donations for the local charities we are going to help out.

As far as the bacteria thing, beer was popular to drink originally because it made water safe to drink, as well as for the other obvious reasons. However, too much sour/wild ale may give you stomach upset.

 

If you are not licensed and you brew the beer in your home, there is no legal way to serve it at a licensed pub in any state. A few states have some tasting laws that allow it at farmer's markets, club meetings, etc. There is no legal way to sell homebrew directly that I am aware of.

As far as getting sick - consuming several glasses of homebrew in a short period of time can cause dehydration, vomiting, and intense headaches.

 

I'm guessing that sanitation laws provide an equally big hurdle to tax regulations. A bar/restaurant can guarantee that anything brewed (even home brewed) on site meets certain sanitary guidelines.

Also, bars and restaurants take on liability for the product they serve. That means they'd want whoever is supplying them to have liability insurance so that there's recourse in case the product they serve makes someone sick *and* it can be proved that it wasn't the bartender, tap lines, server, or glass that caused the illness.

 

If you ever get beer in your eye, flush it out with water immediately.
That's all I have to say.

 

You can't sell homebrew, period. Beer I make in my house is not for sale, as it can't be sold without penalty.

Bars can't sell homebrew.

If the beer is made at a licensed establishment, on their system using their ingredients, with a brewer of record from that establishment, it is commercial beer. I have made small batches of beer on 10 gallon pilot systems, at a brewery, using their ingredients, working with a brewer from the brewery (not much suppervision for me), and the beer was taxed and sold.

As far as sanitation, I have been in some pretty dirty commercial breweries.

 

I beleive it was in Charlie Papazians book, "joy of home brewing", that the ph of beer is such that no known human pathogen can survive in it.

 

A few years ago in Kansas City, I went to a homebrew competition at 75th Street Brewery. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I could have sworn we paid a little bit and got flights of several dozen entries. Maybe not though. Either way, it was cool to have servers bringing out tons of flights of homebrew to our table.

And no, I haven't heard of anyone getting sick from home- or commercially-brewed beer. But I'm no expert.

 

If it is done under the "suppervision" of a pro brewer. Someone has to sign off on the beer for the TTB, as far as the tax and reporting goes. Once again, it is not homebrew when you do this.

 

If you get beer in your eye, it's time to stop drinking. That's all I have to say.

 

Commercial brewers will sometimes produce and sell beer made from local homebrewers' recipes, and may even invite the homebrewer to help out, but I agree with hopfenunmaltz that this beer can't really be called homebrew.

 

The legality of selling homebrews is really a 3 tier system: Federal, State, & local government

Federal: Any alcoholic beverage production for sale needs to be produced under the Federal laws regulated by the ATF Bureau of the Treasury Department. You have to have a federal commercial brewery permit, an approved brewing location, brewers bond, etc, etc​

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State: Then at the state level there are similar requirements to the Federal, however they vary a bit by state.​

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Locally: local governments might also have some rules and restrictions in addition to anything at the Federal and State level. For example my town doesn't allow sales of single server containers less than 14 oz at stores (but bars can server any size format)​

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So it sounds like a pain in a$$ for the homebrewer to sell his beer and would be more trouble for the individual than the actual bar or establishment willing to put his beer on tap or sell.​

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However I do know there are exceptions to the rules (aren't there always). Some states allow homebrews to be sold at farmers markets with less hoops to jump through. In addition I'm pretty sure bars can offer free tastings and samplings of homebrews without all the legal hoops to jump through as well.​

 

Not here in NC, unless its a special, private event. I tried to home a Pumking clone at a bar, and the owner kindly told me to hide it, even though it was going right along side two other bottles being sampled out by a rep.