This afternoon.
Labour TD Alan Kelly speaks about the party’s Craft Brewers Bill at Leinster House.
From the Explanatory Memorandum of the Bill…
Many distilleries and breweries, including micro-breweries, are tourist attractions and welcome visitors on guided tours. Under the Licencing Acts, however, unless the owners acquire a pub licence or an off-licence, it is not possible to sell those visitors the product that is made on the premises.
The purpose of this short Bill is to rectify that situation by permitting the sale by distilleries and breweries of their own product to tourists and other visitors. The Bill also covers the making of cider and perry.
FIGHT!
Hic!
Read the Bill in full here
Pic: John Whelan
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I think this bill may actually makes sense.
Maybe Kelly isn’t entirely useless after all.
Hi Alan.
Hi Willie,
If I keep the railway with nobody on it open for another few years will you give me your vote???
Mr. Kelly
Slightly off topic but a general question. A few years ago I was in The Barge and they were one of the first pubs to really start pushing craft beer. There was a poster on the wall saying duty on craft beer made in Ireland was 50% less than other alcohol and so they could sell it cheaper., a pint of Irish craft beer at the time was about €1 cheaper than any of the mass produced beer. Since then craft beer is more expensive than your average pint, anyone know if the 50% less duty thing still exists?
Answered my own question, it does still exist.
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/leaflets/pn1888.html
Yes, micro breweries in Ireland pay less tax. However the economies of scale mean that they have to pay more for the ingredients.
Yes http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/leaflets/pn1888.html
but the ingredients would be pricier and there’s not the economies of scale from mass-production.
Add in all spirits too you chunt!
And abolish the minimum size for spirits.
You obviously didn’t read it,. because it does include spirits:
Section 1 provides that, where beer is brewed, spirits are distilled or cider or perry is made, in accordance with the appropriate licence, on premises to which visitors are admitted on guided
tours, the Revenue Commissioners shall, on application grant a licence under this section.
Such a licence authorises the sale to such visitors of the beer brewed, spirits distilled or the
cider or perry made on those premises, but no other intoxicating liquor, for consumption on or off those premises. Sales may take place only between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on
any day other than Good Friday or Christmas Day.
is this going to be a loop hole to sell and serve booze wtihout a licence? have a little diy make your own beer set in the back and sell all the booze you want to your hearts content?
Between 10am and 6pm.
As long as you’re making it all yourself in a way that’s legal and fit for consumption I don’t see the problem…
I wonder how small breweries will be affected by the new alcohol and public health bill. so, you may be able to advertise a tour of the brewery but not the beer itself? if a tour includes a taster, would it have to comply to min pricing and will the product eventually end up being sold behind a curtain away from public gaze?
Sorry, I hate craft beers and their vintagey names and marketing. The porters taste like slops and overall so inconsistent. The final straw was when one of my locals stopped serving Guinness due to “shelf space”.. which was a total lie and they were on the take for excluding Guinness. Craft my hoop… No matter how many tax breaks they get, only very few will survive because they are simply muck in a morketing mask.
Good enough for Diageo. They deliberately (and viciously) blocked out competition for years. They’re almost singlehandedly responsible for the relative lack of independent beer producers in Ireland and the woeful lack of choice we had for so long. F*ck ’em.
Hear hear! They have a monopoly on beer here.
As for comment above on lack of consistency – if using natural ingredients, they will vary by season, quantity used and brewers skill. That is part of the fun.
Mass produced stuff is exactly the same, all the time, day in day out.
Consistency is key to sales though. It’s why the English more or less stopped drinking cask bitter in favour of mediocre but never-changing Watney’s Red Barrel for the best part of thirty years until breweries and pubs finally sorted out the cask consistency problem.
This ^^^
Stick with the Budweiser. I was a Heineken drinker and now go for O’Hara’s Pale Ale, Rebel Red, Chieftain (both Franciscan Well) or a session beer. The only stout I drink is Guinness mind.
that o’hara;s leann foileann stout is bloody tasty.
I love all O’Hara stuff. it’s pretty popular now so I’m sure someone will come along with a reason that we shouldn’t be drinking it
Johnny jumped up watery scutter, but whatever colours your stool I guess.
it won’t be the craft producers that are muscling Guinness out of your boozer Tony, shurly? I’d have thought another multinational would be the only one could pull something like that off.
Yeah yeah Tony you old fart. I hear this every day from older guys who are like lads from remote jungle tribes trying spear airplanes.
Do they pay you for your time?
Somewhere out there senior people at Diageo are freaking out at the implications.
They’ve had it their own way for too long. A bit of competition is no harm.
Good for regional brewers, agri-tourism, and customers.
Win all round.
FF publicans will most likely object.
Not really, if you are interested enough in a beer to be visiting a brewery then you’re not likely to be going home to a fridge full of Heineken. The number of customers this will affect would barely be a blip.
It’s not a government bill so won’t be supported. Just like the bill today about micro beads.
Haha, I was reading this thinking of hipster beers, and I read that as “..bill today about micro beards.”
What is perry
Exactly
Pear cider, Frilly
So it’s cider
Ritz was a fairly recent and fairly terrible example
A corrupt Fine Gael Politician
Good spot Smelly
Now, if I could buy a bottle of wine in Centra after 10pm he might get my vote.