Department of Environmental Health

DEH!!!

We are resubmitting our Department of Environmental Health paperwork. Turning over a new leaf hopefully. Our initial submitted plan had us calling our brewing premise a "Wholesale Foods Processing Area" (Note: DO NOT DO THAT!) just call it the "Brewing Premise."

I've heard from a few sources that the DEH is the toughest hurdle in opening a new brewery, so though we can legally sell to bars, it might be a little while until we can legally serve you a pint on premise. Not that I'd sell you one illegally.

Department of Health Requirements:

1. UP TO CODE: There is a very long and complicated list of requirements that your establishment needs to meet in order to serve the public.

2. 11"x17" Copy of your floor plan / diagram / plat in triplicate.

3. Environmental Health Note: i.e. what is the impact of your facility / the construction of the facility.

4. Plumbing Layout: Exactly what it sounds like.

5. Equipment Schedule: Location, Manufacturer, Model #, Exterior Finish, Interior Finish, and Remarks. AND Equipment location (floor plan with numbered equipment layout corresponding to the equipment schedule)

6. Cut Sheets: Manufacturer cut sheets (diagrams) of equipment

7. HVAC Layout: Exactly what it sounds like.

8. Existing Finishes: Location, What the color, material, and description of: Walls, Floors, Ceiling, Casing, Baseboard, and Finish.

9. Site Plan: Everything around you, i.e. your street location, trash cans, storm drains, etc...

10. Various legal agreements if there are any with others around you.

11. $$$: Check for however much your local Department of Health deems necessary. Probably close to $1,000.00

Plus:
Operation Guide
Food Handlers Handbook
Employee Health & Hygiene Guidelines
Insider's Guide to Hand Washing
Saving Water Today; for a less thirsty future.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa... BOE, TTB, DEH.

Glad to say we are finally getting our TTB paperwork out the door. We had to wait for our Seller's Permit to get approved, which ended up being a ridiculously tedious process thanks to some incorrect advice given by the Board of Equalization, they told us we could send the paperwork to the Sacramento Office along with our excise tax paperwork, but it turned out that the Seller's Permit is a local thing. So, that had to be transfered to the San Diego branch, which the Sacramento branch told us they did. The next day we got a "Notice to Appear" from the San Diego branch telling us they had not received our Seller's Permit paperwork. We gave them a call and explained the situation, BUT they said we would probably end up having to resubmit the paper anyways. That did not make too much sense to us, so we called the Sacramento branch confirming that our paperwork had in fact been sent to the SD branch. So the waiting game began...

We called them a couple of times, but they never seemed to get the paperwork in the mail, until one day it mysteriously appeared on a desk a few cubicles over. Huzzah! Unfortunately due to a clerical error from several years ago, the Social Security number associated with our account was incorrectly typed. So they had to send us back the paper work and we had to provide proof that our SSN was the one we provided. A couple of tax statements later we were in business. Sent it back in the mail and waited again...

We called them a couple of times, but they never seemed to get the paperwork in the mail, until one day we received our Seller's Permit in the mail. Huzzah! With our Seller's Permit finally in hand I was able to mail off both our Department of Environmental Health planning application and the application for our TTB account!

With these in the works it is really only a matter of time before we are selling some artisanal ales around here.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Welp, we pretty much got all of our TTB paperwork in line. They ask us about everything from our environmental impact, water quality and sources, trash disposal methods, how we intend to protect our delicious beers from beer thieves and all sorts of stuff you wouldn't think that the Tax & Trade Bureau would care about. Well, I guess in the event someone comes and steals our beer we wouldn't have to pay taxes on it... and that would be a huge bummer for the IRS. This was probably my favorite piece of paperwork that we are submitting to them. I love Google Maps.

After this all we have left to deal with is the Department of Environmental Health. DEH!!! I am really hoping that dealing with them is easier than trying to navigate their website which consists of hundreds of broken links. Although, their Facebook page is pretty fun and informative. Watch out for West Nile Virus Mosquitos and Hantavirus Mice! Hantavirus AKA the "English Sweate" is something you probably do not want. Unless you are a certain Korean dictator looking for a good weaponizable virus. Then you might really like the stuff.

If you ever want to apply with the TTB you can find all the paperwork here or click on the items below:

1. The Brewer's Notice - this tells the TTB you intend to become a brewery. You need to attach a diagram of the premise, a description of the security, a legal description of the brewery, and all your corporate by-laws and articles of incorporation, and your SS-4 Employer ID number.

2. Brewer's Collateral Bond - a bond for $1,000 for the first 4,000 barrels of beer you produce. If you produce more than that you will need to obtain a strengthening bond.

3. Personnel Questionnaire - includes everything you've ever done ever, as well as how much you plan on spending to open the brewery.

4. Water Quality Considerations - you need to tell them if you are going to be poisoning any rivers near by.

5. Environmental Information - you need to let them know how much polution you plan on generating, hopefully zero.

6. Signing Authority - only in the even you are a corporation or LLC.

7. Pay.gov User Agreement - whereby you agree to use their website to pay taxes on the beer ($7.00 per barrel, which is really what all this paperwork comes down to in the end.)

Fictitious Business Name

I was just working on some TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) paper work and realized I never looked into whether our Fictitious Business Name made it through the old bureaucratic machine or not. Turns out that it did and we are ready to start doing business as Hess Brewing Company. *electric guitar shread* SWEET ASS SWEET!

It's pretty cool being able to see our business name up on the old internet machine. Just one step closer to actually being in business.

Today we also finished installing some copper piping, if you are ever installing copper pipes check out GatorBite or SharkBite, they are weld-less copper pipe fittings that make your life so much easier.

One thing I never realized was that concrete is one tough SOB. I'm pretty sure that our warehouse will survive the nuclear Armageddon. We went through four drill bits just putting in fourteen holes into the concrete walls.


p.s. get stoked for the the new season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia! September 17th!

The Continuing Story of an ABC License.

Today we visited the San Marcos branch of The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Twice.

Twice because we forgot to bring our corporate paperwork (secretary of state filing number, stock issuance, etc...) so we had to go back down to our offices to get them. Luckily they were not busy today and we were able to schedule an appointment for after lunch.

Once back we talked to Vicky, the friendly ABC worker, for about twenty minute. After updating some information, correcting a few details here and there, we were done. Just had to wait for them to enter the info into the computer.

While we waited we headed downstairs to talk to the Board of Equalization (in soviet russia-board equalize you) to talk to them about getting a seller's permit and whether we need to obtain a surety bond or not. Turns out they have no idea...

Headed back upstairs and they presented us with this pretty little piece of paper we need to post for 30 days. Overall a productive day.

CA Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control

There is nothing more fun than working on paperwork when opening a new business. Especially if you are going to be selling alcohol. There are about 15 different licenses/permits/agencies that you need to work with and each of those have enough paper work to make you get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Here is a shot of the ABC paperwork on my computer.

That is 22 pages worth of questionnaires, diagrams, financial and personal histories. I have yet to figure out how much getting this license will cost us, but I know they can be a little pricey.

I do like that Arnold is on the ABC's homepage. I imagine he drinks fine hand-crafted beer and not ABInBevSABmillerCoorsMolson Conglomerate Fizzy Water. I cannot believe Obama drank a BL at the beer summit.