Brewer’s Blog

In the Land of Acronyms, R&D Is King for Breweries

May 10th, 2021 • by William Kuhlman and David Oksenhorn

This was a year of challenges that significantly hurt the brewery industry. Breweries tried different tactics to stay afloat, including relying heavily upon grants and loans. One year later, we are in a land of acronyms that have helped in the economic recovery of the industry, such as PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), ERTC (Employee Retention […]

Set Your Brewery Up for a Successful Summer with Social Media

April 16th, 2021 • by Morgan Culhane

If you want to increase buzz about your craft brewery this summer, it’s time to start planning now. Having an effective social media strategy can help you reach more customers and boost your taproom sales. But simply posting isn’t enough because there’s a lot of competition out there. Here’s what you can do right now […]

Making Your Brewery Outdoor Expansion Permanent? File the Alteration Application Now.

March 29th, 2021 • by Chip Grieco

The ability to create or expand outdoor seating during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a key element of many breweries’ ability to offer on-premises services to their customers. Governor Cuomo and the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) helped facilitate those expansions by creating a temporarily streamlined process to expand licensed premises to provide for, […]

How Breweries Can Turn Sunshine into Dollar Signs

February 23rd, 2021 • by Nate VerHague

Electric costs for your brewery are part of the process. It’s one of those expenses that just comes with the territory of running a successful business and needs to be factored into overhead costs. Right? Not if you go solar! A solar panel installation for your brewery presents a host of opportunities to save money, […]

How Small Breweries Can Budget for a Tumultuous 2021

February 3rd, 2021 • by Aaron Smyle

Many breweries are heading into the new year with a lot of fear and uncertainty. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a struggling economy and a new presidential administration, planning for the coming year is much more complicated than in years past. Nobody knows how long it will take for the virus to get under control or […]

Electronic Filing Now Available for Alcoholic Beverage Tax Return

January 19th, 2021 • by Kate Welc

New York State recently updated the Alcoholic Beverage Tax Return to allow for electronic filing beginning with returns due January 20, 2021. NYS has created the MT-456 which replaces the MT-50 but remains very similar in the required information needed and added fields that can be filled in electronically. Please note- you will first need […]

Brewery PPP Volume 2 – The Remix ft. Employee Retention Credit

January 11th, 2021 • by David Oksenhorn

If 2020 were a song, it would have no solid bassline – a sample track like nails on a chalkboard and an overall awful mashup that seems unending.   But a note of hope was sounded in March, when the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), was passed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security (CARES) […]

Awareness, Grace and Replenishment: We can get through this

December 22nd, 2020 • by Meghan Connolly Haupt

It was reported a couple of weeks ago that Tony Hsieh, best known as the founder of Zappos.com, died of injuries related to a house fire. As more details emerged of the shocking news in the days following, Tony’s death seemed a direct result of the downward spiral those close to him report witnessing. Just […]

DTC and Associated Sales and Income Tax Issues for Breweries

December 3rd, 2020 • by David Oksenhorn

With the COVID crisis still in full swing, many breweries are hurting. Extended closures of tasting rooms and select re-openings with reduced capacity have led to dramatically decreased sales. Many breweries look to their tasting rooms as their primary revenue stream, with most sales coming in the form of draft sales, with some to-go sales […]

Expanding or Altering Your Brewery Premises During COVID

November 13th, 2020 • by Jennifer Tsyn

As all breweries know, changes to your licensed premises generally need to be approved by the Liquor Authority.  The Authority considers your initial application for a license to be a “snapshot in time” – and if you want to make changes later, the changes generally need to be reported and/or approved. If you are going […]