You cannot simply sell gin you made at home, however good it is. Making it for yourself is free of any licence or approval, but selling alcohol requires a licence under the Licensing Act 2003 from your local council, and producing alcohol for sale requires approval from HMRC. Those two requirements are what change the moment money is involved, and they apply to a single bottle sold at a school fair just as they apply to a brand with a warehouse. Here is the shape of it, so you know what you would be taking on before you get attached to the idea.
Why does selling change the legal picture?
Because the law is not really interested in your kitchen. Nobody regulates you for steeping juniper in a bottle of vodka you bought, since the spirit was produced, declared and duty paid by somebody else, and you have only added flavour. Home infusion sits outside the production rules entirely.
Selling moves you into a different world. Alcohol is a controlled product at the point of sale, and the licensing regime exists to control who sells it, from where, and at what hours. It makes no distinction between reselling a crate of lager and selling a bottle you infused yourself on a Tuesday evening. Once there is a transaction, you are in scope.
What would you need on the HMRC side?
Since 1 February 2025, producing alcoholic products, including spirits, requires HMRC's Alcoholic Products Producer Approval, generally shortened to APPA, and producing without the appropriate approval is an offence. That is GOV.UK's own guidance.
Whether a commercial operation buying in neutral spirit and compounding it counts as production for that purpose is exactly the sort of question to put to HMRC rather than to a blog, and it is why we give no forms, fees or reference numbers here. What we can say plainly is that the informal answer people want, which is "it is only a few bottles, surely it is fine", is not an answer the rules recognise.
What would you need from your council?
A licence under the Licensing Act 2003, issued by the local authority for the area you would be selling in. This is the same regime that covers pubs, shops and market stalls, and it comes with conditions about premises, responsible people and hours.
The practical route is to look up the licensing pages on your own council's website, because the detail and the process vary by authority, and to do that before you print labels or take a stall booking. There are usually food labelling and duty questions to answer alongside it, which again belong with the people who administer them, not with us.
What can you do with the gin you make?
Make it properly, and make it yours. The most satisfying route out of the "could I sell this" itch is usually to stop thinking about volume and start thinking about the blend, which is what our Ultimate Gin Making Kit is built for: thirteen botanicals including juniper, lemon and orange peel, ginger, coriander seed, allspice, lemongrass, cacao nibs, hibiscus, rose petals, cassia bark, nutmeg and cloves, enough for up to ten 700ml bottles, and a set of measuring spoons so you can record what you did.
Work through two or three deliberately different blends, keep notes, and taste with the pipette rather than the calendar. Strain when it tastes right to you and not before. That is how you find out whether you actually have a recipe worth anything, which is a far better use of a winter than filling in forms for a bottle nobody has tasted yet.
What if you are serious about going commercial?
Then treat the kit as the research and development stage rather than the business. A good compound gin developed at home is a real starting point, and several drinks brands have begun with someone infusing jars in a kitchen. What comes next is not a bigger jar, it is professional advice.
Start with GOV.UK for the HMRC producer approval position, and with your council's licensing team for the selling side. Ask them directly what your particular plan would need, because the answer depends on whether you would be producing, packaging, reselling, or some mixture. And be honest with yourself about scale: a batch that takes a week in a jar behaves very differently when you need consistency across hundreds of bottles.
What about giving it away?
Anything beyond making gin for yourself is worth checking rather than assuming, and we would rather say that than guess on your behalf. The rules we can point you to are the two above: selling needs a council licence under the Licensing Act 2003, and producing for sale needs HMRC approval. If your plan involves a raffle, a charity stall, a wedding or anything else with money or a crowd attached, ask your council's licensing team what it thinks before the event and not afterwards.
Selling homemade gin FAQs
Can I sell homemade gin in the UK?
Not without permissions. Selling alcohol requires a licence under the Licensing Act 2003 from your local council, and producing alcohol for sale requires approval from HMRC. Check GOV.UK and your council before you plan anything.
Is it legal to make gin at home for myself?
Yes, if you are infusing rather than distilling. Steeping botanicals in a spirit you have bought produces no alcohol, so no licence or approval is needed. Distilling without HMRC approval is an offence.
Can I sell my gin at a craft market or school fair?
The same rules apply at any scale, so a stall selling alcohol still needs a licence from the council. Contact your local authority's licensing team well in advance and ask what your specific plan would need.
What is the Licensing Act 2003?
It is the law covering the sale of alcohol in England and Wales, administered by local councils. It is the reason a licence is required to sell alcohol, whoever made it and however small the quantity.
How many bottles does a big gin kit make?
The Ultimate Gin Making Kit makes up to ten 700ml bottles from its thirteen botanicals, with each batch infusing in a couple of days. You supply a bottle of vodka per batch.
Want to develop a blend of your own first? See our gin making kits.
