Submitted TTB

[Gabe]

Took 9 months for us to get ours door to door!

[ArmstrongBrew]

6 weeks

We received our TTB approval a couple of weeks ago and it took 6 weeks. I was very pleasantly surprised. It is a bit of a mail bitter, but once the specialist starts to review it is pretty quick to approval.

When I spoke with our specialist on the phone, she said the biggest thing was people do not fill out their packages completely. I left out a check mark on one form, but was able to correct that and got final approval 2 days later.

With the number of applications out there, it is going to take some time. I think my specialist had 30 breweries herself, but I've heard the horror stories prior to them going online and just glad it was 6 weeks. Now it's off to the state...

[is_wiz]

We are now in Final Review. Whatever that means.

just updating the thread for future comparison sake.

[AMS0286]

Wiz,

So that must mean you completed your interview? Care to share any details? If you want, email me. I'm very interested to hear how it progressed.

Thanks!

[is_wiz]

No, so it still says Review in Progress. Then under that it says.
Specialist review approved
referral review empty
field review empty
final review in progress
manager disposition empty

[Fullcourt]

It is a couple of years old, but the Hess Brewing Co in San Diego has a lot of information on the TTB:

http://hessbrewing.blogspot.com/2010/01/ttb-brewery-approval.html

[is_wiz]

I think things ,,, hope things have really changed since they went online.

[bkj110]

I submitted 8-Mar-12 online, got an email on 24-May-12 saying it was processed, approval was recommended and I'd get another email with instructions on how to download the documentation when it was approved. No phone interview.

[is_wiz]

Boom !!

TTB APPROVED !! We received TTB approval today. So,, submitted 5/1/12, and approved 6/1/12.

That isn't bad at all. Not at all. Couldn't be happier.

[Pompeiisneaks]

It is a couple of years old, but the Hess Brewing Co in San Diego has a lot of information on the TTB:

http://hessbrewing.blogspot.com/2010...-approval.html

I spoke with the Hess brothers at CBC, they are really cool, told me that the TTB says their site is awesome on explaining how to do it all, and they refer people to it all the time.

[AMS0286]

No phone interview Wiz?

[is_wiz]

nope, no phone interview. Even sent them an email asking about it. And they confirmed that is wasn't necessary.

[apoxbrew]

TTB APPROVED !! We received TTB approval today. So,, submitted 5/1/12, and approved 6/1/12.

That isn't bad at all. Not at all. Couldn't be happier.

sheesh... that's awesome!! we've been setting idle since we submitted in April:

Specialist Review
- Due on 05/19/2012, assigned to TBD
Marked as Pending on 04/24/2012

[AMS0286]

Phone interview follow up

Today I had my phone interview and as promised this is my recap post. First I have to say my specialist has been with the TTB for 25 years and seems to be adjusting to the online system just fine. She was extremely thorough and very easy to work with. They are people just like us and their goal is to help us through the process, not to shoot us down. For anyone about to under go the phone interview I have to second the Hess Brewing blog. http://hessbrewing.blogspot.com/2010...-approval.html
I reviewed this before my interview and was over prepared. Write down your answers to the questions for your situation and you will be golden for the call. It's great that they can now make changes to your application over the phone as it saves a lot of back and forth. The one thing to pay very close attention to, as they can't change it over the phone for you is your bond form. If there is an error or omission on this form you will be stuck to changing it on paper. I was lucky enough that the variance from my bond to my application was my business office address. My specialist was able to change my application so it matched the existing bond form. The only other correction that I had to take action for was attaining an addendum to my lease. They want brewing beer to be an expressly permitted use in your lease. For me this was easy to get, but for others this may be a hang up if your land lord isn't readily available. Many of the other changes that could be made over the phone were due to glitches in the new online system. Things that are supposed to auto populate from one section to another just don't, so they will ask permission to add this info where needed. The final change to my application that warrants attention was a label on my diagram. I had labeled my cold storage area as "tax determined storage". This needed to be changed as I was told breweries cannot store any tax determined beer on premise. It was explained that when beer was removed from the premise, this would be the point at which I would determine taxes. I do have a tasting room in my plans and when beer is moved to this location this is also considered a tax determination point. Other than that most of the issues were nominal. I'll update again when I get my final permit issued, but the specialist said it would be a few days. She also mentioned that they were working at being more cross functional for application review. As it stands now there are separate work groups for distillation, wine, cider, beer, wholesalers, etc. They will all be combined in the near future to better allocate efforts based on current demand.

[Triple C]

ours was fairly painless. never spoke to a live person, a few emails and that was it. now if we could just get open...