Craft brewing, cider making and distilling

There are several legal considerations for running a brewery, cidery or distillery. This includes taxes, and rules around promoting alcohol products.

Premises and environment

If you are setting up your own premises, you first need to seek planning permission. If you plan on selling alcohol to the public, you will need to apply for a licence to sell alcohol.

Local producer's licence

A local producer's licence will allow you to sell your own products from your own premises for consumption off the premises. It will also allow you to sell your own products from other licensed and unlicensed premises in certain circumstances. You will need to place a notice on the premises detailing the conditions under which alcohol can be sold.

If you hold a local producer's licence, you may also apply for a suitability order and authorisation to permit consumption on the premises under certain circumstances. You will be required to place a notice on the premises detailing the conditions under which alcohol can be sold and consumed.

If you plan on providing samples of your alcohol products to guests on a tour of your production premises or at an event being held on unlicensed premises, there is a limit to the sample measures you can provide, which must not be exceeded. You can find further information on this in the Department for Communities' guide to the Licensing and Registration of Clubs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 (PDF, 313K).

Water and effluent charges

Producing beer and spirits uses large amounts of water, and there are charges to pay. You should consider saving water to cutt costs and other brewery water efficiency measures.

You will need consent from Northern Ireland Water if you will be discharging trade effluent. You will be charged depending on how much effluent you discharge.

You also have a duty of care for business waste.

Health and safety

There are certain risks that come with manufacturing alcohol products - these include dust, manual handling, slips, falls and chemical irritants. You have a responsibility to protect yourself, your staff and the public from harm. See health and safety basics for business.

If you are producing drinks for sale and consumption, you must comply with food safety laws. You also need to register with Food Standards Agency as a food business.

Beer duty

If you produce beer for commercial reasons, you must pay beer duty. The duty applies to all types of beer over 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV), including ale, porter and stout. To do this, you must register as a brewer with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Commercial beer becomes liable for duty as soon as it is made. HMRC provides information on how to calculate how much duty is owed at the end of the accounting period.

You can delay paying the duty immediately by applying for beer duty suspension. This can be used when beer is being held at registered premises, sent to an excise warehouse or sent for packaging.

The small breweries rate relief scheme offers reductions if you produce less than 60,000 hectolitres of beer per year.

Spirit duty

There are certain licences required to manufacture spirits:

• to produce spirits by distillation or other methods, you need a distiller's licence
• to redistill or mix spirits in a still, you require a rectifier's licence
• if you mix spirits with anything except water, without using a still, you need a compounder's licence

You will also need to get approval on your plant and process from HMRC.

You must pay spirits duty on all spirits or mixed spirit drinks over 1.2% ABV. To do so, you must complete a quarterly production return for each spirit you produce. Like beer, spirits can also be held in duty suspension.

Cider duty

Cider and perry with an ABV between 1.2 and 8.5% ABV are liable for cider duty. Drinks made with fermented apples or pears are considered made-wine or spirits for tax purposes if they have a higher ABV or if they have certain additives.

You must register as a cider maker if you make cider for sale or if you make more than 70 hectolitres of cider per year. As a registered cider maker, you must:

• keep certain records
• calculate and pay your cider duty
• comply with cider production laws

Advertising rules

There are strict rules you must follow when promoting and advertising alcohol products. Advertising for alcohol must not be directed at or appeal to people under 18 years old. This means that alcohol advertising must not:

• reflect youth culture
• feature individuals who appear under 25
• appear around programmes targeted at or appealing to audiences under 18

There are additional rules to protect consumers of all ages. Advertising should not link alcohol with:

• increased popularity
• sexual success
• confidence
• sporting achievements
• mental performance
• tough or daring behaviour
• therapeutic qualities
• overcoming problems

You must not encourage people to drink in an unsafe way, such as binge drinking.

Packaging and labelling

There are rules you must comply with when packaging and labelling alcoholic drinks for sale. As well as the standard food labelling rules, when a drink is stronger than 1.2% ABV:

• you must declare the alcoholic strength on the label
• you don't need to include an ingredients list

See alcohol labelling rules.