Very micro brewery in the UK

[Pheeel]

Just saw this article about a very micro brewery that brews and serves from within shipping containers!!
http://www.we-heart.com/2015/11/09/40ft-brewery-dalston-london/

Very fing trendy. I didn't think there was an easy license you could get in England to open a tap room but it turns out you can get a personal license (which doesn't sound too erroneous to get). Bit of searching and it seems like loads of little breweries with tap rooms are popping up in England

I thought getting a license to serve alcohol in Ireland was harder and effectively there was a cap on the number of premises meaning a license was like gold dust (and hence $$$)? I seem to recall the brewer at Wicklow Wolf complaining about them not being able to serve

[dcalnan]

I did my final year project on this idea, good to see someone else had the same idea.

[armedcor]

I remember seeing an article about a guy in the UK who basically was home brewing on a very large scale in his apartment and had gotten a licence to sell it. He could barely move in his bed as it was full of plastic fvs

[nigel_c]

I know the feeling.

[Leann ull]

I remember seeing an article about a guy in the UK who basically was home brewing on a very large scale in his apartment and had gotten a licence to sell it. He could barely move in his bed as it was full of plastic fvs

Closer to home I visited somebody in Cork who went pro recently like that  

[Pheeel]

Well this seems to confirm what I heard re the license

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/11/11/an-absurd-brewhaha/

[DEMPSEY]

Well this seems to confirm what I heard re the license

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/11/11/an-absurd-brewhaha/

This is one of the issues that I thought Beoir should have as a campaign point .

[Tom]

Beoir seem to be more about the consumer. This is something for a brewery lobby group, I reckon. Would be good to see, though.

The Welsh brewery Tomos a Lillford started out in a shipping container, using old upturned copper hot water cylinders as the brewkit. Bloody HSE here would have a FIT!

[cruiscinlan]

Yer man in the White Hag doesn't really know the intricacies of the law in this regard:

He says "because, in Ireland it is illegal to serve, or sell, someone beer from the brewery."

He's incorrect, he can serve all he likes, he just can't sell retail quantities of beer.  As holder of a brewers licence he also holds a wholesalers licence and can sell:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/excise-licensing/wholesalers-licences.html#quantities
The Licence authorises the sale of Beer in any quantity not less than two and a quarter gallons to a person who is Licensed to sell beer by Retail, and in any quantity not less than four and a half gallons or two dozens reputed quart bottles to any other person.

So 20.45 Litres bulk or 18.61L bottled.  I've contacted breweries here before about selling polypins as they do in the UK or filling a corny but there's no interest from them in cutting out the middle man which I can't understand.

[irish_goat]

He means that it's illegal to sell pints.

Eight Degrees sell beer direct and I think a few others are going to start doing it too.

[cruiscinlan]

He means that it's illegal to sell pints.

Then he could say that, it's not much use comparing his set up with licencing set ups in Ohio.  Licencing law is immensely variable in the US, Jack Daniels being made for instance in a dry county.

I'd have to say that selling pints probably isn't a great idea as most breweries are in spots you have to drive to anyway. Although of course you could make the same point about country pubs.

Why can't he charge a small price for admission and leave out a few tasting flights?

Within the current legislation he could get a Beer Retailer's On-Licence for €500 p.a.

[HomeBrewWest]

These are the very issues that Joe deals with in the micro courses we run. It bloody complicated and not my arena, bushel barrels and such like. I think there are 3 different licenses that can apply to micros. There are dozens of regulatory issues like this, and my head still spins during Joe's presentation.

As a software engineer, I try to keep it simple. Otherwise, things generally tend not to work.

Having said all that, I think we inherited all this from the UK. Goes back to when they started taxing the many small local distilleries makers many moons ago.

[Pheeel]

I'd have to say that selling pints probably isn't a great idea as most breweries are in spots you have to drive to anyway. Although of course you could make the same point about country pubs.

From my house in Seattle I could walk to 7 breweries all with tap rooms. Made for a hell of a pub crawl!!!
If the govt here made it possible I'd hope you'd be able to get a lot of smaller local breweries opening and able to sell to the public. That'd be my hope 😊

[Pheeel]

And be clear 20 years ago in Seattle there was really only one micro in town, Red Hook. You give people a way things can change!!

[cruiscinlan]

Having said all that, I think we inherited all this from the UK. Goes back to when they started taxing the many small local distilleries makers many moons ago.

Technically the public house licensing issue goes back to the Liquor Licensing Act of 1902 (2 Edw. VII c. 18) which applied only to Ireland, it froze the granting of licenses at that point in time.  As a result over time the license itself became an asset, much like taxi plates.

But all that said I don't see why the breweries won't sell direct if they can.  I'd happily buy 20L-30L of a special beer.