Priming and Beer Duty

[DemonBrew]

Has anyone been aware of this:

19. Additions to beer
19.1 Priming
19.1.1 What is priming?
Adding sugar solution to beer to encourage secondary fermentation and increase its alcoholic content – see paragraphs 12.2 and section 31.
19.1.2 Where can beer be primed?
Beer can be primed on registered premises and on any other premises which we approve. If you are a registered brewer or registered holder and you wish to prime beer on premises which are not registered, you must seek our approval. When you obtain such approval you must keep a record on your registered premises of any such premises at which priming takes place.

If you are not a registered brewer or registered holder you may not prime beer unless we have approved the arrangements.

19.1.3 How do I get approval of premises for priming?
Contact the Excise and Customs Helpline, phone 0845 010 9000, stating:
ï‚·
the address of the premises at which you wish to undertake priming
ï‚·
the addresses of registered premises from which the beer will be received
Page 74 of 113
Notice 226 Beer Duty
November 2011
ï‚·
the estimated annual quantities of the beer to be primed, and
ï‚·
the destination of the primed beer.

[oz11]

Not quite sure what you're really asking?

I assume it's to avoid beer leaving a brewery at, say 4.0%ABV and duty being paid at that rate, and then a dodgy publican tipping a ton of sugar into the cask on his premises to increase the ABV and then sell a beer of 5.0% and charge the going rate for such.

[DemonBrew]

The interesting bit is the:
If you are not a registered brewer or registered holder you may not prime beer unless we have approved the arrangements.

I posted it just out of interest really.

It does reflect on the vague homebrew rules though as any non-registered brewer i.e. homebrewer shouldn't really prime if you go by the strict wording.

It's more about the vagueness of the homebrew part of the beer duty regs, suppose.

[themadhippy]

Think youll find those rules only apply to commerical brewers,or people selling beer

[DemonBrew]

Ok it's the spirit of what they mean, I know that. As a commercial brewer, the thing I do know is the Duty regs!

Not wanting to start anything here it was just out of interest.

The vaguness of the wording of some of the rules and strictness of others was more my interest so I thought I'd post in case anyone else was interested

[oz11]

Yeah, I think it really means adding a load of sugars to beef up the ABV, not priming just to ensure a secondary fermentation.

I reckon the key bit is:

Adding sugar solution to beer to encourage secondary fermentation and increase its alcoholic content – see paragraphs 12.2 and section 31.

And this bit:

If you are not a registered brewer or registered holder you may not prime beer unless we have approved the arrangements.

would be to stop wholesalers/publicans/etc tampering with the beer to increase the ABV fraudulently. Now there's a lower scale of duty for the big brewers for beers upto 2.8% they could brew everything to below that, pay lower duty rates and then get their cellarmen to dump sugar in casks on arrival at pubs to get the ABV back up to 3.8%. Wouldn't be very appealing for the discerning drinkers, but for fizzy lager boys? I suppose if you chilled it to death you might get some takers?!

[trucker5774]

I understand the point of interest. When reading documents published for legal purposes (and tax) the entire document is relevant as is each and every word. This is apparently intended for "the trade" and the following draws your attention to that. I haven't read the whole publication as my cornflakes were far more important.

1.3 Who should read this notice?
It is primarily intended for:
(a) commercial brewers
(b) packagers of beer, and
(c) importers and exporters of beer.

[DemonBrew]

Tee hee, I must get out of the brewery into the light more often!

Unfortunately Trucker, I have read it all, well almost, I don't supply to the EU.

It was a sort of down the pub, have you seen what this says type of thought that made me post.

The document is open to interpretation and as Trucker says, it is a legal doc so they word it that way.

Having phoned Beer Duty peeps on numerous occations, I find them easier to deal with than Vat or Tax types.
The ones I know are all homebrewers!

But the bit about "brewing for your own domestic use" i.e. homebrewing is very vague and basically was told so by the Duty helpline.
It says what it says so there...can you serve beer at a homebrew meeting or competition or raffle prize or......until someone challenges it, the answer is yes.

So the concern is, the way the powers that be are trying to tax everything, I think we have to keep one eye on homebrewing. The more popular it gets, the more nosey buggers in the civil service will poke noses in.

It's already started a bit with the adding of Vat onto homebrew supplies like grain and hops.
So now if I buy a bag of grain wholesale for very cheap and was Vat registered, I would have to charge Vat if I then resold that for homebrew purposes.

Slippery slope??

That's when as Trucker also points out, each and every word of the Duty doc is relevant.

Right, let's get on with something more interesting, like making beer