Craft Brewery Insurance – What you need to protect your brewhouse!
Mirco (Craft) Brewery Insurance – What you need to protect your brew house!
Laws are changing to attract more Craft Brewers to cities. In fact, West Columbia, SC just had a major announcement to try to attract craft brewers or a single craft brewery to locate in their city to help revitalize a once popular real estate area. It’s a great idea! Here’s an article in The State about it:
http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article76307167.html
According to the South Carolina Brewers Association, craft breweries have accounted for $443 million in economic impact in South Carolina since 2014. As it stands now, Lexington County, South Carolina only has 1 brewery for this booming industry.
But don’t forget about Craft Brewery Insurance, if you are thinking about opening your own micro brewery!
As a brewer interested in opening another location or a new business, South Carolina and Lexington County laws are just one hurdle to jump. You must also post State and Federal Liquor Bonds and should buy appropriate insurance. Not any insurance will do! You need specific insurance to protect your most significant investment and risks…your tanks, your beer, and your customer liability.
Make sure your Craft Brewery or Micro Brewery Insurance includes the following industry specific coverages:
Brewery Property coverages
- selling price and market value valuation clauses for your product
- tank collapse
- tank leakage
- contamination and adulteration of your product
- temperature change
Brewery Liability coverages
- blanket additional insured status for vendors/distributors
- product recall expense
- liquor liability
- special event coverage if you host or attend tours, tastings, festivals, and/or weddings.
And those are only the Property and General Liability coverages, there are broadened Crime and Equipment Breakdown coverages available for brewers as well.
As you can see from the brief list above, a standard General Liability and Property Policy will not provide enough protection for a Brewery to be successful in the event of a loss. It only takes one large event to force a start-up Brewer to close its doors.
Consider these loss examples that can easily occur in your brewery:
Your heating boiler explodes, causing extensive damage to your brewhouse and building. Equipment breakdown coverage can cover the damage to your equipment and your building.
A gear in a bottling line suddenly breaks, shutting down production. Equipment breakdown coverage can pay for your cost to repair or replace the damaged gear, up to the limit of your policy, and could also cover your lost income or extra expense caused by the accident.
Finally, most craft breweries have tasting rooms and tours. Protect yourself! The most common claims are slips and falls, which can run up to $10,000 in medical bills. Here are some additional tips to protect your brewery tasting rooms and tours: http://blog.cinfin.com/2015/03/19/tasting-rooms-tours/
Don’t forget to join your local Brewers Association to stay on top of current trends happening in your area. Here the link to the South Carolina Brewers Guild: http://www.southcarolinabeer.org/