Taproom with offsite brew house.

[kpope713]

I’m in the unique position of having a neighbor with 20 acres that they are wanting to plan a brewpub with myself brewing and maintaining brewery operations. We’ve been working with architects to get renderings and have formed an LLC.

My question is, I have a 2400 sqft steel building on concrete floors that is air conditioned with 16 foot ceilings, a separate sub panel, and an 800 square foot apartment built in. So 1,600 sqft of usable brew space. What would the federal and state(tx) licensing look like for running the brewing operations here(we are commercially zoned, as well as have the advantage of knowing the city council and mayor personally) and selling the beer at the brewpub next door? Effectively turning my shop into a brew house.

This would save us a substantial amount of money in square footage in the construction of our brewpub. I would only need to have a trench drain installed and cold room assembled, my shop really is a perfect space for this type of setup.

let me know your thoughts, I believe talking to an attorney familiar with this will be happening soon but I wasn’t sure if anybody had seen this type of situation before.

[MasterBrew99]

Hi kpope,

It sounds to me from this description like you are in a good position to make this happen. The biggest thing for using a space as a brewery would be zoning and city permitting to operate as such. As far as the ABC is concerned, to be a beer manufacturer and operate a tasting space, you have to have the brewery space clearly defined and the tasting space needs to be located adjacent to the brewing space to operate under the same license. If it does not share the same building/adjacent space, this would take an additional license in order to sell it. That said, you can make beer and "distribute"/sell it to whoever you'd like as a beer manufacturer (Type 23), so long as your state laws allow self distribution.

As you mentioned, I would double check with your city planning department and an attorney. But from how you describe it here, so long as it is properly zoned and you submit your plans to call out your brewery space, it shouldn't be a problem building a brewery here!

If you would like an additional assistance in planning your brewery, selecting equipment, forecasting, etc. Feel free to reach out to chat further. I am a Brewery Consultant and can help at all points along the way.

Derek Wasak
derek@plato.beer
www.plato.beer