New Year, New Hurdles

image by iowa_spirit_walker

We are starting the new year by sending our Brewer’s Notice to the TTB. Like many new breweries, this has taken us several months to pull together. There were real estate issues, equipment issues, and logistical issues which all had to be sorted out before we could even apply for a license (I will post another time on all the expenses that went into the brewery before we were even able to apply for a license).

We’re shipping off the application after a bit of scurrying around looking for witness signatures, since the brewery does not have a corporate seal. It seems to me that the TTB needs to update their forms, since corporate seals (a vestige of the middle ages) are often no longer enough to bind a corporation (the signatures of the President and Secretary have the binding effect).

One requirement that delayed the application was the legal description of the property requirement. We needed to obtain a plat from the county; according to the TTB, the county assessor’s information on the property was not enough. Some areas, however, do not have recorded plats. What are those applicants to do? Order a costly survey simply to fulfill this requirement?

Luckily, we did not need to figure that situation out. There was a plat recorded for the industrial park that our leased unit is part of. This, I was told, is enough for the TTB’s requirement. We simply needed to state what percentage of the larger area the brewery will take up.

Perhaps this plat requirement needs to be re-thought as well. Since someone physically investigates the premises, is the plat really necessary? Are they making sure that the brewery (or winery or distillery for that matter) is located where the applicants say it is? There are much more simple (and just as effective) ways of doing that than requiring the recorded plat(the standard county assessor information, for example).

The TTB was a wealth of information (although, no one could tell me why they needed the plat). Someone always returned my calls, usually on the same day. Of course, as a branch of the Internal Revenue Service, their interest is in collecting tax revenue. So far, it has been the best government agency I have ever dealt with. I hope it continues.