Microbrewery & Taproom Insurance
A microbrewery with a taproom is three businesses at once. A production site full of vessels, chillers and pumps. A wholesaler sending casks and kegs out to pubs, shops and festivals. And, a couple of evenings a week, a bar with the public standing next to the brewhouse.
One Building, Three Different Risks
Most of the trouble with brewery insurance comes from a policy that only knows about one of those. A shop or pub package will cover the bar and say nothing useful about a fermenter failing mid batch. A manufacturing policy will cover the plant and be vague about forty people drinking in the yard on a Friday.
The fix is not complicated. It is describing all three parts of the business on the proposal and making sure each one has a section that actually answers for it.
What Microbrewery and Taproom Insurance Covers
Buildings and brewing plant
The unit and everything bolted to it: mash tun, copper, fermenters, conditioning tanks, chillers and the canning or bottling line. Insure the plant at what it costs to replace and install today, which on stainless vessels is rarely what you paid for them.
Equipment breakdown
Sudden mechanical or electrical failure of the plant itself, which standard property cover does not answer because nothing has burnt or flooded. A glycol chiller or a boiler failing is the commonest way a brewery loses a week.
Stock and deterioration of stock
Malt, hops, beer in tank and finished product. Deterioration cover pays when beer spoils because refrigeration failed or the power went off, which is usually an optional extension rather than part of the stock section.
Product liability
Claims that beer you made caused injury or illness, including beer sold through pubs, shops and online. It travels with the product, so it matters as much for a cask in a pub fifty miles away as for a pint in your own taproom.
Public and employers' liability
Public liability for visitors, taproom customers and tour groups. Employers' liability is a legal requirement once anyone works for you, at a £5 million minimum, and brewing has real manual handling and hot work exposure.
Business interruption
Lost gross profit while you cannot brew or trade after an insured loss. Set the indemnity period against how long it takes to source and commission replacement vessels, not against how long a repair to the building takes.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
Breakdown is not damage
A fermenter that cracks, a pump that seizes or a controller that fails is generally not covered by the property section, because nothing external happened to it. Without equipment breakdown cover it is your cost.
Spoilage without the extension
Beer lost because a chiller stopped overnight is typically excluded from ordinary stock cover. Deterioration of stock has to be added, and it often carries conditions about temperature alarms.
Product recall
The cost of pulling a batch back from the trade after a contamination or labelling problem is a separate product, not part of product liability. Product liability answers claims from people harmed; it does not pay to retrieve and destroy stock.
Casks and kegs away from the brewery
Containers out in trade sit on other people's premises and in other people's cellars. Whether your stock or contents cover follows them there, and for how much, varies between wordings and is worth checking against the number you actually have out.
Events off site
A stall at a festival, a pop up bar or a brewery takeover elsewhere is a different place from the address on your schedule. Some policies extend to it automatically, some need it declared, and organisers usually want to see a certificate.
The Plant Is Where The Money Is
A small brewery can have more value in stainless steel than in the building around it, and most of that plant is made to order. When a vessel is damaged the question is not just the cost but the lead time, and replacement fermenters and brewhouses are commonly measured in months.
That is why breakdown cover and business interruption have to be read together. Breakdown pays to repair or replace the kit. Business interruption pays for the income you lose while you wait for it. A sensible indemnity period for a brewery is the time it would take to get a replacement brewhouse delivered and commissioned, which is usually well beyond the twelve month default.
Pressure systems deserve a mention. Steam boilers, compressed gas and some vessels fall under pressure systems regulations and typically need a written scheme of examination and periodic inspection. Insurers ask for those inspection reports, and an out of date one is the kind of thing that turns a straightforward claim into a long one.
Product Liability Follows Every Cask You Sell
Once beer leaves the brewery you have very little control over it, and your liability goes with it. A contaminated batch, a can that fails under pressure, or a glass fragment in a bottle can reach customers in dozens of venues before anyone notices.
Pubs, bottle shops and distributors increasingly ask for evidence of product liability before they will list you, and the limit they want is usually stated in their terms. Five million pounds is common. If you supply a supermarket or a pub group, read their supplier agreement before you renew, because some ask for more.
Records are what defend these claims. Batch numbers, cleaning logs, brew sheets and dispatch records let you show which beer went where and what was done to it. They also let you limit a problem to one batch rather than everything you sold that month.
The Taproom Changes The Risk
Opening the doors to the public turns a production unit into licensed premises for a few hours a week, and insurers want to know about it. How many people, which days, whether food is served, whether there is live music, and how the brewing area is kept apart from customers.
That separation matters more than people expect. Hot liquor, caustic cleaning chemicals, forklifts and CO2 build up in confined spaces are everyday hazards in a brewhouse and genuinely dangerous to someone who has had three pints and wandered behind a rope. Brewery tours bring the same people into the production area on purpose, so they need supervising and declaring.
Busy event days, a beer festival in the yard or a ticketed launch, are usually fine to cover but should be mentioned in advance, with expected numbers. A taproom described as fifty people on a Saturday that is actually hosting four hundred for a festival is a different risk.
How To Choose Insurance For A Microbrewery
A brewery does not fit neatly into a shop, pub or factory scheme, so the choice of broker and insurer matters more than it would for a simpler business. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that actually separate one option from another.
Does the policy cover production, wholesale and the taproom?
Ask to see how the business has been described. If the proposal only mentions brewing, or only mentions a bar, part of what you do is uninsured or ambiguous.
Is equipment breakdown included, with deterioration of stock?
These are the two sections that answer the losses breweries actually have. A quote without them is cheaper for a reason.
Is the indemnity period set on real lead times?
A broker who asks how long a replacement fermenter takes to arrive is thinking about your income. One who leaves the default twelve months may not have placed many manufacturers.
Does product liability meet your customers' terms?
Check the limit against what your biggest stockists ask for, and check it covers beer sold online and exported if you do either.
Are events and containers out in trade dealt with?
Festivals, takeovers and the casks sitting in other people's cellars are where cover is most often assumed and least often written down.
Factually, we place breweries with insurers that write food and drink manufacturing rather than on a shop or pub scheme, we describe the production, wholesale and taproom sides separately on the proposal, we raise breakdown, spoilage and lead times at quotation stage, and we check product liability against your stockists' requirements. We are a broker, so it goes to several insurers rather than one. Call 02382 000820.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- Annual turnover, split between wholesale, retail and taproom sales
- Value of brewing plant and canning or bottling equipment
- Stock values, including beer in tank and finished product
- Whether you open a taproom, run tours or host events, and how many people attend
- Where your beer is sold, including online and abroad
- Construction of the unit, fire protection and security
- Claims history
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a quote.
What We Need To Quote
- Address of the brewery and any separate stores
- Turnover for wholesale, retail and taproom
- Replacement value of the brewhouse, vessels and packaging line
- Typical and maximum stock values
- Taproom opening days, capacity and whether food is served
- Number of employees, including part time bar staff
- Any events, festivals or tours, with expected numbers
- Five years of claims history
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Pub insuranceIf you brew for your own pub, or run the bar side as a full pub.
- Goods in transitCasks, kegs and cases on their way to customers.
- Business interruptionSetting the indemnity period against real equipment lead times.
Common questions
What insurance does a microbrewery need in the UK?+
Employers' liability is a legal requirement once you employ anyone. Beyond that a brewery typically needs buildings or contents cover for the unit and plant, equipment breakdown, stock with deterioration cover for spoiled beer, product liability for beer sold through pubs and shops, public liability for visitors and taproom customers, and business interruption set against how long replacement vessels would take to arrive.
Does brewery insurance cover beer that spoils if a chiller breaks?+
Only if you have deterioration of stock cover, which is usually an extension rather than part of the standard stock section. Insurers commonly ask for temperature alarms on cold stores and conditioning tanks before they will add it. The chiller itself is a separate question, answered by equipment breakdown cover.
Do pubs need to see my product liability insurance before stocking my beer?+
Many do, and larger pub groups, retailers and distributors usually set a minimum limit in their supplier terms, commonly £5 million. Check the terms of your biggest customers before renewal so the limit on your schedule matches what they ask for.
Can I insure my taproom on the same policy as the brewery?+
Usually yes, and it is better that way than two separate policies with a gap between them. The proposal needs to describe the taproom properly: opening days, capacity, food, entertainment and how customers are kept away from the brewing area.
Am I covered at beer festivals and events away from the brewery?+
It depends on the wording. Some policies extend public and product liability to events automatically, others need each one declared. Organisers usually ask for a certificate, so it is worth confirming the position before you book a pitch rather than the week before.
Who insures small breweries in the UK?+
A handful of insurers write food and drink manufacturing well, and a microbrewery with a taproom sits across several of their categories. Going through a broker means the risk can be presented to more than one of them, with the production, wholesale and taproom sides described separately so each is properly covered.
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