HSBD

In the comments over at Leg-irons' place Curmudgeon and I were discussing the impact of the high strength beer duty (HSBD) on the occurrence of high strength beers. I strongly believed, having witnessed a conversation between the Head Brewer and Finance Director of a brewery, that it will reduce the frequency of new, niche, high strength ales because apart from the *new*, *exciting*, extra charge microbreweries will not be able to claim SBR for those beers. Essentially this would add 150% to the existing duty charge for the beer. Or so I believed.

Then Curmudgeon gave links to HMRC sources that seemed to indicate that my initial belief that Small Brewers Relief (SBR) would not be applicable for high strength beers was completely wrong. There it was, in clear text, on an HMRC site, the information that SBR could still be claimed but not on the HSBD element. Today I was at the other brewery and I had the chance to explain what I'd read.

They were adamant I was mistaken and dragged out their EX46 or, to the uninitiated, their Beer Duty Return (.pdf). The problem is that the wording on the return confuses the issue all over again. It strongly seems to imply that SBR is not applicable to high strength beers, even though the other sections of the HMRC electronic empire say that it does, because of the part of the form that you use to record this epic brews.

I still have no idea which is correct. Until it's properly clarified I'm not even going near to 7.5% ABV with my beers which, I guess, means that my initial point about brewers shying away from higher strength brews was right?