Selling your brews!

[Horatio]

[quote="Scooby
Tell me, what is a hydrometer if not proper measuring kit to measure the alcohol content.


Not meaning to be pedantic but a hydrometer does not measure alcohol content at all. It measure specific gravity or density of a liquid; albeit you can determine alcohol content if you have a starting gravity reading and a final gravity reading.

Runs for cover before anyone does a Trunky!

[Texy]

(A femto is something a thousand times smaller than a nano, and a million times smaller than a micro )

Not quite! You are describing a pico


Texy

[Scooby]

[quote="Scooby
Tell me, what is a hydrometer if not proper measuring kit to measure the alcohol content.


Not meaning to be pedantic but a hydrometer does not measure alcohol content at all. It measure specific gravity or density of a liquid; albeit you can determine alcohol content if you have a starting gravity reading and a final gravity reading.

Ok maybe I should have said 'determine' as opposed to 'measure'

[critch]

you do not need to have your beer yearly checked and you do not need to buy some overpriced kit to tell you how much alcohol youve got in your beer.you will need approved hydrometers and accurate record keeping

It is a requirement that one of each of the beers produced is checked for abv once a year. HMRC can test your beer at any time by taking a sample at a pub or from a bottle, if it was found to be above the limits set down, back tax would be payable, that's one good reason to know what, how much and to whom you sold and be able to cross reference that to your malt records.

Tell me, what is a hydrometer if not proper measuring kit to measure the alcohol content. you need 2 hydrometers to cover a range of beers and a spare of each is a necessity. At over £50 each that's £200+ Who mentioned over priced kit?

read ted brunnings microbrewers handbook available from amazon for a few quid ,its got all the(accurate) information you need

Sounds like it needs a revision.

tends to be the weights and measures who test your beer more than the revenue, one gets pissed off if its too high an abv one if its too low! as stated i do keep(very) accurate figures but according to the revenue officers ive spoken to (who have been very helpful) they told me i dont have to get the beer tested at an independant lab.maybe your local office takes a different light on it.

[SamT]

(A femto is something a thousand times smaller than a nano, and a million times smaller than a micro )

Not quite! You are describing a pico


Texy

I wonder how small a brewlength an attobrewery would go for - would it even fill a pint glass

</nerd>

[Scooby]

tends to be the weights and measures who test your beer more than the revenue, one gets pissed off if its too high an abv one if its too low! as stated i do keep(very) accurate figures but according to the revenue officers ive spoken to (who have been very helpful) they told me i dont have to get the beer tested at an independant lab.maybe your local office takes a different light on it.

I've checked with 2 brewers in my area to confirm this so possibly it is the local office.

Low ABV could mean trading standards get involved, although I have yet to hear of anywhere local that has been subject to testing.

[Anavrin]

Just out of interest how much duty would a registered micro brewer have to pay to HMRC per pint produced

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Standard Duty on normal strength beer is £18.57 per hectlitre per % Alcohol abv.

So for 1 hectolitre of beer at 5% there would be £92.85 duty to pay.

That works out to 52p per pint in duty.

Small Brewersproducing less than 500,000 litres per year get a 50% reduction in duty, so for a Micro that would be 26p per pint duty.

High Strength Beer Duty adds another £4.64 duty per hectolitre per % abv for beers over 7.5%, there is no tax relief on this for smaller breweries though.

So a 7.5% Beer would incur a 99p per pint duty, which in my mind is equivalent to daylight robbery, or 61p per pint duty for a Micro, as they still get relief on the Standard Beer duty portion (I think)

[coatesg]

Small Brewersproducing less than 500,000 litres per year get a 50% reduction in duty, so for a Micro that would be 26p per pint duty.

Not quite - it's a sliding scale between 5000hl and 60000hl, and it's a little convoluted to work out. I did do a spreadsheet on my blog to work this all out: http://www.chromosphere.co.uk/2011/10/2 ... -thoughts/. Otherwise, pretty bang on - Duty is pretty much the biggest regular outlay for a small sized brewery - far outstrips raw materials, energy, etc.

[DerbyshireNick]

sort of on topic - had the thought but didn't want to waste a new thread on it...

What are the laws of accepting cash from friends for your beer?

To put it into context, If someone made a "donation" to the brew cost of say... 50p per pint?

It might seem allot but when you take into account electricity, cost of equipment and so forth too? I just wonder how legal it is as your not really selling it but in a way you kind of are.

I guess the difference is your not selling it to the general public, you are in fact splitting the brew cost with some friends right???

[polymoog]

very dangerous ground i think legally, as soon as you accept any money even 1p a pint you are selling the beer and the duty men will then need paying.
Better to get your friends to buy you "some ingredients" and then make then the beer and then give it to them free!

[Blackaddler]

I guess the difference is your not selling it to the general public, you are in fact splitting the brew cost with some friends right???

Wrong. You can't sell it, give it away, raffle it or whatever... HMRC have every angle covered.

The chances of the Revenue ever coming after you for a few quids worth of duty are somewhat remote, however.

[dcq1974]

Still illegal

[Horatio]

Better to get your friends to buy you "some ingredients" and then make then the beer and then give it to them free!

Still not technically legal. IIRC you can only brew for yourself to be consumed on your own premises. How you would get found out and what would happen are a different matter though.

[polymoog]

I guess the difference is your not selling it to the general public, you are in fact splitting the brew cost with some friends right???

Wrong. You can't sell it, give it away, raffle it or whatever... HMRC have every angle covered.

The chances of the Revenue ever coming after you for a few quids worth of duty are somewhat remote, however.

Wow! i really did not know that as i give lots of my beer away as i make so much!
to legally then it HAS to be for OWN consumption! What about Wife/ partner / Family / Relations etc?