StillSmart

I think this might be taking alcohol licensing just a little bit too far...

http://www.tesco.com/direct/youngs-wide ... 3-7188.prd

On the right hand side you will see it states "You must be over 18 to buy this item "

Heaven knows what would happen if you tried to GO INTO a homebrew shop

Ye gods...you have to be 18 to buy a plastic bottle....what next???

Brexit and sense will once again prevail!!

Batteries not included

So do you need to be 18 before you can buy a bag of sugar or a tin of baker's yeast?

Water is also a problem in the wrong hands.....

18 eh?

Don't forget your Challenge 21 card, children!

The world is going to hell in a handcart.

Robert.

I just love all of these answers... nanny state???? ROLLOCKS I say ROLLOCKS....

As per usual, it's just some spineless corporate knob (big business is full of them)........

like anything, if it's not challenged publicly and loudly, it creeps into the social consciousness........

Lets face it, so much bollocks has been published by the red top media etc, that people really believe it i.e. "it was in the newspaper, so it must be true"........

I like to make a bit of a "song and dance" then once the point is made, I vote with my feet and take my money with me.......

I've recently stood at check out waiting for a supervisor to come and clear me to purchase crown seals....

I am not in any way a supporter of the 'more than my jobs worth' mentality, neither do I support unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, or 'nanny state legislation', but I think that we have here a case of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't'.

The items in question are specifically, by intent of the retailer, related to the production of alcohol at home. They are, for that reason, placed in their Home Brew Section.

Should there be, at any time, reports of school children falling ill, or dying, through alcoholic poisoning as a result home produced beers or spirits, of having obtained the the equipment and ingredients from a retailer, without any question about age, I am sure the outrage would be even greater than that expressed here.

Rather in the way of tax evasion and avoidance, there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

For those of us, as adults, producing our own spirit, that is a decision we have made, right or wrong. Are we, by extension, to argue that children should have the same means/opportunity.

If not, isn't the store in question simply holding to the spirit of the law?

I am not aware of any legislation that places age restrictions on the purchase of ingredients or equipment intended for the home brewing of beer, wine or other fermented products.

I don't believe there are any restrictions on the sale of fermenters, malt, DME, grape concentrate, wine kits or anything else homebrew related.

Businesses should be challenged where they exceed the law. If they insist on doing so (as it is their right to do, they are not obliged to sell anything) then they should be informed that it will be widely publicised on social media, along with a recommendation that consumers take their business elsewhere.

Myles is pretty much spot on. The law is only concerned with the control and management in connection with sales of alcoholic beverages.

Just because the makers suggests that X is produced for Y purpose, doesn't prevent the sale of that item as restricted by the various licensing regulation.

Otherwise they'd have to restrict lots of stuff i.e. you can't buy hose pipes as you might use it for nefarious purpose (siphoning petrol etc).

In any case, kids aren't stupid. They'd find whatever they need to use as a fermented.......

Ergo, they're full of shit......

I totally see what Toper is saying,and also what Myles is saying.
Nearly 50 years ago,as a kid I simply picked apples,put them in a bucket under the bed and added some bakers yeast,left it a couple of days and consumed the lot.
These days we have Health and Safety,Duty of Care and all the other stuff.
Those days nobody talked about wife beating and kiddie fiddling.
Society is constantly changing,not always the way that one would personally want.
It was never easy for the first Potcheeners and Moonshiners.
Just go and do it.
Maybe getting creative in the ways that you acquire the equipment

Robert.

I would reply by saying that really how old you need to be to do anything at all had little to do with my core argument,

'...isn't the store in question simply holding to the spirit of the law?'

I raised the point of tax evasion or avoidance, each term a nice bureaucratic definition, which justifies , it appears, massive profit making by the many multinational conglomerates who, ignoring the 'spirit' of the law, avoid paying what would be rightful taxes which could be used to the benefit of the communities in which they operate.

Opposing any who support the 'spirit' of a law would appear to play directly into the hands of such international conglomerates and their complicated offshore company structures.

They each all claim to be obeying the 'letter' of the law, whilst dismissing a need to recognise the 'spirit' of a law as 'non-profitable'

It appears they have your support?

The fact that it might impinge on matters in which one has an interest has nothing to do with how one interprets what is the 'intention' of any law and, how does one support the the spirit of that intention.

As previously mentioned, I accept that we, as a group of adults, have decided, for our own rationalised reasons, to ignore some laws. I do it because I feel I, relatively, harm nobody by my personal consumption of my own product. If it wasn't so an enjoyable activity anyway, I probably wouldn't bother.Others might define their position otherwise. What we are not doing is ignoring the 'spirit' of a laws. We are 'opposing' them.

To oppose laws is vastly different from those avoiding the 'spirit' of laws.