With breweries popping up all over NH it may appear that anyone who likes to drink beer can make a quality beer,  but you know differently.  You know that it takes more than a little passion and skill to craft the perfect beer.  While it is imperative to start with the perfect mix of style and science for your unique beverage creation, it is your expertise and well-kept machinery that creates the final product.  As your equipment is vital to your operation it is incredibly important for you to know the best strategies for covering your brewery equipment with the necessary craft beverage policies.

The Unique Aspects of Insuring a Microbrewery

Most of us know the classic scenarios of which you will need insurance protection.  Beyond the instances occurring such as fire, flood, theft, or injury, there are many particularly disruptive situations for brewers that could severely halt production and damage your reputation.  You have very specialized equipment that was not a cheap investment and is not cheap to repair if damaged.  You need to make sure that in the case of a breakdown that halts production or spoils batches of product, that you have the fast and reliable insurance that covers the costly replacements and any lost income or extra expenses that could otherwise cripple a small business such as your microbrewery

Just as your product is unique, you should investigate customizing options for your craft beverage insurance policy.  With some rational policy tweaking and adjusting, a craft beverage establishment can truly operate with a financial security that can help take the operation to the next level, while only paying for the coverage needed.

Cover Your Craft

If you are the owner of craft beverage equipment then it would make perfect sense to expand your commercial property insurance to add a Craft Beverage Commercial Property Endorsement which covers the risks inherent to a microbrewery.  This endorsement provides more than 35 expanded features to the policy coverage, along with a Brewery Property Endorsement or a Distillery Property Endorsement.  These two endorsements add four special coverage features such as tank collapse or leakage and key-employee replacement expense. 

In addition to these coverage enhancements, a beverage crafter should consider other options to protect their business operations. Here are some crucial policy options that could help you avoid a financial hardship and protect your reputation:

Restaurant Property Endorsement — important for operations that include a restaurant and adds coverage for goods on consignment, customer’s property and key-employee replacement.  

Product Contamination or Adulteration Endorsement — can provide important protection against accidental contamination of the beer while in the production phase.

Product Recall Expense Coverage — can cover the costs of a product recall due to potential to cause bodily injury or property damage. 

Equipment Breakdown Coverage — can extend your property policy to cover loss to real and business personal property due to a sudden and accidental breakdown of specialized machinery and brewing equipment.

Protection Against Loss From Crime — coverage to protect your business across areas such as employee theft, forgery and alteration, theft of money and securities, computer fraud, funds transfer fraud and loss from accepting in good faith money orders, and receiving counterfeit money.

State and Federal Liquor Tax Bonds — can help you meet surety requirements to ensure your payment of appropriate taxes to governmental entities if your establishment sells alcoholic beverages to customers. 

Don’t Forget

Other options for your microbrewery insurance policy can include: liquor liability, transportation and temperature change coverage, umbrella liability, crisis event expense coverage and business auto coverage.

On top of covering the expensive specialized brewing equipment, a beverage crafter also needs to be aware of other risks to maintaining consistent production. Talk to a local agent like HPM Insurance to ensure that your equipment such as air tanks, electric motors, data processors, fans and blowers, water heaters, and more are all covered under an equipment breakdown policy or endorsement.

As you appreciate the time and quality of a fine beer, take a moment to ensure your passion has the right protection. It can not only save your business from financial disaster it can save your reputation in an extremely competitive marketplace. Cheers!