Sell home-brew kits and alcohol online in the UK: when you need a licence and when you do not
Kits and equipment need no licence. Drink with alcohol in it needs a premises licence where the bottles are dispatched, a personal licence holder and an ID check at the door. Duty, labels and the shop set-up. Checked 9 November 2026.
This guide is for anyone selling home-brew kits, ingredients and equipment online, and for the small brewery or drinks maker wondering whether a website means a licence. It covers which side of the line your products sit on, what the licences cost, the age check at a distance, duty, VAT, labels and the shop set-up. We build Orbit Commerce, a UK hosted ecommerce platform, so weigh the Orbit parts with that in mind. Every legal point and figure was read on gov.uk, legislation.gov.uk or the regulator named on 9 November 2026; your council’s licensing team has the final word on your own premises.
In short
- Kits, ingredients and equipment contain no alcohol: no premises licence, no personal licence, no age check by law. HMRC asks nothing of someone brewing beer, cider or wine for their own use.
- Selling drink that contains alcohol online in England and Wales needs a premises licence where the bottles are dispatched from, a designated premises supervisor with a personal licence, and an age verification policy. Band A: £100 to apply, £70 a year. Personal licence: £37.
- Remotely sold alcohol counts as served when it is delivered, so the ID check happens at the door; a website age gate states the rule and the courier’s check does the legal work.
- Alcohol Duty: £22.58 per litre of pure alcohol for beer between 3.5% and 8.4% ABV, about 51p on a 500ml bottle at 4.5%. Rates rise on 1 February 2027.
- Scotland has its own Act with the same dispatch logic, a 10am to 10pm payment window and a 65p minimum unit price. Northern Ireland licences come from the county court.
Do you need a licence to sell home-brew kits online?
No. A premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003 authorises the sale or supply of alcohol (Home Office guidance, updated 8 August 2025). A beer kit is hopped malt extract and yeast, a wine kit is grape concentrate, a fermenter is a bucket with a lid. None contains alcohol until the customer adds water and waits, so a kit shop needs no premises licence, no personal licence and no designated premises supervisor, and no age verification condition applies. A footer line saying you sell ingredients and equipment, not alcohol, makes that clear to shoppers.
HMRC agrees: producing alcoholic products needs a producer approval, but production for domestic use is exempt (HMRC, updated 1 March 2025), spirits excepted, so if you sell distilling equipment, say that producing spirits at home needs HMRC approval even for your own use.
VAT is where a kit shop is treated like an off-licence: VAT Notice 701/14 standard-rates anything packaged for home wine or beer making, naming hopped malt extract, hops, brewing yeasts and grape concentrates (paragraph 3.7.4, updated 8 June 2026), and the standard rate is 20% (gov.uk). See our guides to UK VAT for online sellers, registering a business to sell online and, if you also sell food, selling food online in the UK.
When does selling alcohol online need a licence?
The moment the product contains alcohol: your own beer, a cider, a gift box with a bottle in it. In England and Wales anyone who sells alcohol needs authorisation from the licensing authority, usually the council: a premises licence for the business, a designated premises supervisor who holds a personal licence, and every sale authorised by a personal licence holder (Home Office guidance; gov.uk, personal licence).
Which premises? Section 190 puts the sale where the alcohol is appropriated to the contract, that is, where the bottles are set aside for that buyer (Licensing Act 2003, section 190). The Home Office section 182 guidance adds that a call centre taking orders would not need a licence but the warehouse where the stock is selected would, that licensing hours apply at those premises, and that a delivery service belongs in the operating schedule (paragraphs 3.9 and 3.10, November 2026). For a web shop that is where you pick and pack, not your web host or the customer’s doorstep.
You apply to the council with your details and the supervisor’s, a premises plan and an operating schedule, display a notice at the premises for 28 days, and pay a fee set by rateable value band. Most licences then run indefinitely with an annual fee. Trading without a licence can mean a fine, up to six months in prison, or both (gov.uk, premises licence). Fees are set in regulations, so every council in England and Wales charges the same, and premises with no rateable value sit in Band A (East Devon District Council, updated 8 July 2026):
| Fee band | Rateable value of the premises | Application fee | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | None, or up to £4,300 | £100 | £70 |
| B | £4,301 to £33,000 | £190 | £180 |
| C | £33,001 to £87,000 | £315 | £295 |
| D | £87,001 to £125,000 | £450 | £320 |
| E | £125,001 and above | £635 | £350 |
The personal licence needs an accredited qualification and a convictions check (Home Office guidance) and a £37 fee (East Devon’s fee guide).
What the law asks of age checks when you cannot see the customer
Selling alcohol to someone under 18 is an offence under section 146; the defence is that you believed the buyer was 18 or over and either asked for evidence that would have convinced a reasonable person or nobody could reasonably have suspected their age (Licensing Act 2003, section 146). A mandatory licence condition sits on top: an age verification policy requiring anyone who appears under 18, or an older age the policy names, to produce identification bearing a photograph, date of birth and a holographic mark or ultraviolet feature, which the designated premises supervisor must enforce (Mandatory Licensing Conditions Order 2010, Schedule, paragraph 3). Since 15 September 2026 a policy may also accept digital identification through a registered digital verification provider.
The Home Office guidance applies this to a parcel: alcohol sold remotely, including online, is treated as served only when it is delivered. Licence holders should use appropriate age verification measures and consider what further steps will make sure age is verified before the alcohol is handed over. The person serving or delivering it remains responsible for seeing that the check has been made (section 182 guidance, paragraph 10.64). The guidance encourages PASS cards and names Challenge 21 and Challenge 25 schemes (paragraphs 10.46 and 11.30); Challenge 25 is the usual written policy.
So the job has three parts: a written policy; a courier’s age-verified delivery option, which is where the law is satisfied; and a website statement that you do not sell to under 18s and that whoever takes delivery will be asked for ID. A self-declared age gate belongs to that third part: it states the rule and turns away a visitor who honestly answers that they are under 18, while the courier’s check at the door is what satisfies the licensing condition. The same shape applies to selling knives online.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Scotland’s Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, run by licensing boards, reaches the same answer: section 139 treats a sale as taking place at the premises in Scotland from which the alcohol is despatched (section 139), and the premises manager must hold a personal licence (Scottish Government guidance). Argyll and Bute Council’s guidance on remote sales adds that payment may only be taken in the 10am to 10pm off-sales hours and that nothing may be delivered between midnight and 6am. A day book and a delivery book must record each order. The guidance also says the Act’s age verification condition does not extend to remote sales, though the licensee must still show due diligence (Argyll and Bute Council). Scotland also sets a minimum price of 65p a unit (Scottish Government).
In Northern Ireland the licence comes from the county court, and selling without one can mean a £5,000 fine or up to six months in prison (gov.uk). Duty and VAT are UK-wide.
Alcohol Duty, HMRC approval and selling to the trade
If you make the drink, two HMRC approvals sit beside the council licence: the producer approval above, and, if you sell to pubs, shops or other websites for them to sell on, approval under the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme. Apply for that at least 45 days before trading. A retailer selling only to the public does not need it, and buyers are expected to check a wholesaler on HMRC’s register (HMRC, updated 6 March 2025).
Alcohol Duty is charged per litre of pure alcohol. These are the rates on gov.uk, updated 1 February 2026 (Alcohol Duty rates):
| Strength (ABV) | Beer | Still cider | Wine, spirits and other fermented drinks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3% to 3.4% | £9.96 | £9.96 | £9.96 |
| 3.5% to 8.4% | £22.58 | £10.39 | £26.61 |
| 8.5% to 22% | £30.62 | £30.62 | £30.62 |
| Over 22% | £33.99 | £33.99 | £33.99 |
A 500ml bottle of 4.5% beer holds 0.0225 litres of pure alcohol, so about 51p of duty. Small Producer Relief lowers the rate on products under 8.5% ABV for producers who made 4,500 hectolitres or less of pure alcohol in the previous production year (HMRC). On 1 February 2027 every rate rises with RPI at 4.55%, taking beer between 3.5% and 8.4% to £23.61 (policy paper, 28 October 2026). VAT at 20% applies to every drink containing alcohol (VAT Notice 701/14, paragraph 3.7.1).
Labels, bottles and the post
Trading Standards’ Business Companion guide to alcoholic beverages, reviewed March 2026, lists what a prepacked drink must carry. That includes the name of the drink; the strength for anything over 1.2% ABV, as “x% vol”; and the net quantity, in the same field of vision as the name and strength. An ingredients list and a nutrition declaration are not mandatory; allergens must be declared either way, in a “Contains:” statement if there is no list; and health claims may not be made (Business Companion).
Units, the Chief Medical Officers’ 14 units a week, a pregnancy warning and a Drinkaware line are not required by law as at 9 November 2026. They are the Portman Group’s best-practice elements, and its June 2026 review of 500 products found over 99% carrying a pregnancy warning, 96% unit content and 89% the weekly guideline (Portman Group, May 2022; market review, 2 June 2026).
Then the parcel: carriers treat alcohol as a restricted item with their own limits on strength, quantity and packaging, so read your carrier’s list before you list a bottle. Our shipping comparison found InPost pays no compensation on glass (checked June 2026), so choose a service for its cover; Royal Mail or a courier? compares the options.
Your first ten orders
- Start with kits and equipment: nothing to wait for while a licence application runs.
- Pick one kit you have brewed yourself and write its page as the step-by-step card you wish it had come with.
- Sell to the people who already ask you: the club, the friend who borrowed your hydrometer.
- Post the first orders yourself and open one when it arrives.
- Ask every buyer for a review and approve the honest ones.
- Add the next kit when the first has sold ten times.
Where Orbit fits
On Orbit everything below is on every plan, from Solo at £25 a month (£19 a month billed yearly), ex VAT. Kits and equipment are physical products with a weight, dimensions and a shipping class. Each size or strength is a variant with its own price, SKU, barcode and stock. Custom fields hold batch volume, brewing time and, for a licensed seller, ABV and units, available to the product page (products; custom fields).
A starter kit is a bundle of up to 30 physical components: its page lists them, its availability follows the one that would run out first, and it ships as its parts. Ask us and we switch bundles on for your shop. Refills can run as a subscription, weekly to yearly or every two weeks: each renewal charges the saved card and creates an order, a product set to ship carries its delivery on that order, and customers pause, resume or cancel from their account (subscriptions).
Shipping classes carry a cost per class per delivery method, so “Glass and liquids” has its own charge and a mixed basket becomes separate deliveries. Each method has handling days, transit days and an order-by cut-off; the estimate shows at checkout and the Orders list flags Late and Due today. A method can be set to “charge confirmed after the order” for a pallet you price by hand (shipping and fulfilment; advanced shipping rules). Carrier labels are bought from the order; the age-verified delivery service is arranged with the carrier.
For the licensed seller there is a storefront age gate under Settings, off by default: you set the minimum age (18 by default), choose a yes-or-no confirmation or a date of birth, set how long a successful answer is remembered (30 days by default) and write the wording. It is listed as “Age gate (self-declared)”: it states your rule to every visitor, and your policy and the courier’s check at the door do the legal work (security and compliance). A kit shop should leave it off. Product Reviews is a free plugin and every review waits for your approval; gift cards are a product whose amounts are variants, emailed when payment succeeds and spendable over several orders. The theme store lists free and premium themes by industry; pick one for a kit or drinks shop and change its colours, fonts and logo in the dashboard.
Read next: selling meat and dairy online and gift cards for a small shop.
Questions people ask about selling home-brew kits and alcohol online
Do I need a licence to sell home-brew kits online in the UK?
No. A premises licence covers the sale of alcohol, and a kit or a fermenter contains none until the customer brews it. Kits need no premises licence, no personal licence and no age check by law, and someone brewing beer, cider or wine for their own use needs no approval from HMRC.
Which premises needs the licence when I sell alcohol online?
The place where the bottles are set aside for the buyer and dispatched. Section 190 of the Licensing Act 2003 puts the sale where the alcohol is appropriated to the contract, so the warehouse needs the licence and a call centre taking orders does not.
Does my website need an age gate to sell alcohol?
No law requires one. The Home Office guidance says remotely sold alcohol is not served until delivered, so the check happens at the door. A self-declared gate states the rule to every visitor; your policy and the courier’s age-verified delivery do the legal work.
How much is the duty on a bottle of beer?
Beer between 3.5% and 8.4% ABV pays £22.58 per litre of pure alcohol at the rates in force since 1 February 2026. A 500ml bottle at 4.5% holds 0.0225 litres of pure alcohol, so about 51p before VAT. On 1 February 2027 that band becomes £23.61, about 53p on the same bottle.
Is selling alcohol online different in Scotland?
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 applies, the licence comes from the licensing board, the premises manager holds a personal licence, and the dispatch premises are the place of sale. Payment may only be taken between 10am and 10pm, nothing may be delivered between midnight and 6am, and alcohol cannot be sold below 65p a unit.
If you sell kits, you can open this week; if you sell the drink, start the council application and the HMRC approvals first and build the shop while they run. The 14-day free trial, no card required, is long enough to load the first kit, set the glass shipping class and send yourself a test order.