A four-pass method for brewery and taproom site selection, visit by visit

What to take away

Why the passes run in this order

Each pass costs more than the one before it. Desk work costs an afternoon. A measuring visit costs a trip. A second visit costs another trip at an hour you would rather not work. A contractor walk costs money.

Budget an afternoon for the first pass and an hour on site plus travel for the second. The third takes an hour during trading hours. The fourth is a paid half day, quoted per building.

So you filter with the cheap passes first and pay for the expensive one only on buildings that survived. A building that fails on permitted use never earns a survey.

Why no ranked list of towns appears here

A list of the best towns for a brewery would have to assume your state's license rules, your capital, your production plans and your willingness to move. Change one of those and the list changes.

Published rankings are usually built from population and income figures. They say nothing about whether a specific building can take a brewhouse or whether zoning permits on site consumption there.

What decides the outcome is a set of attributes you can measure at any address. So the useful tool is a scoring sheet you fill in the same way at every candidate, not a list of somebody else's answers.

Pass one: desk work

Anything you can check without leaving the desk. Is a brewery with on-site consumption permitted at that address? What is the asking rent, and what does it include? What was the previous use? Does the ceiling look tall enough in the listing photographs?

Three of those questions are gates rather than scores. Answer each in writing before you go further, and stop on any candidate that fails one.

A failed gate ends the search at that address.

Asking rents commonly run in a typical range of $8 to $20 per square foot per year outside dense urban cores, where the figure is far higher. The market and what the landlord includes decide where a given address sits.

Most of a shortlist dies here, and that is the point. Work the shortlist until at least three addresses survive.

Pass two: the measuring visit

One hour, with a tape measure and a phone. You are measuring what decides feasibility, not forming an opinion about atmosphere. A typical 10 to 15 barrel brewhouse needs roughly 14 to 16 feet of clear height, and the tanks you actually buy set the exact number.

Photograph the floor, the panel, the ceiling and the loading area at every site. After four buildings you will not remember which was which, and the photographs settle the argument later.

Score the twelve attributes on the same scale at every candidate and write one sentence of evidence beside each score. The sentence matters more than the number.

Five attributes cover production and four cover hospitality. Three sit across both, which is why they get missed by people watching one side of the building.

Some of these cannot be bought later at any sensible price. Drainage and electrical capacity belong in that group, and a building that scores well on finishes and poorly on those two will absorb your contingency.

The storage numbers matter more than people expect, because they set the terms of every purchasing decision afterward. Check them against how sourcing and inventory planning works before you decide a building is big enough. Waste is the matching question: spent grain, yeast and wastewater all have to leave, and how they may leave is set locally.

Pass three: the second visit, at trading hours

Go at the hour you intend to open, on a day you intend to open.

Go again on a different day. One visit measures your mood as much as the building. Walk from the nearest parking and from the nearest transit stop, after dark if you can.

Knock on the two nearest doors during this visit and ask when noise, deliveries and crowds would bother them, and how they would want a delivery handled. Complaints can become conditions on your license, so ask before you sign, not after.

Pass four: the professional walk

Contractor and, ideally, a brewer who has installed equipment before. Only for the final two buildings, because this pass costs money. A contractor walk is usually quoted per building and often runs a few hundred dollars and up.

Bring the photographs and the measurement sheet. Ask for a rough build number against a requirements schedule, not a single lump figure, so you can see which line items are large.

A taproom and small brewhouse fit-out commonly falls in a typical range of $100 to $250 per square foot. Drainage, electrical service and how much of the space is public decide where it lands.

Choosing between the last two

Two buildings left. Both have survived the four passes, and both need the same three questions answered in the same order.

Step four is where decisions reverse. A cheaper rent that needs a new electrical service and a cut slab is the larger deal with the difference hidden.

Accessibility belongs in step four rather than as an afterthought. The U.S. Department of Justice: ADA Guide for Small Businesses explains what a small business is expected to do about barriers and what applies when a space is altered, and a taproom fit-out is an alteration. Designing it in is far cheaper than retrofitting.

The labor number, counted on site

Stand in the room with your intended schedule and count the people it needs on a normal Friday and a normal Tuesday.

The labor a building implies is not on the measurement sheet, because it comes from several attributes at once. It is usually the largest cost over a decade.

One service point means one bartender is always the bottleneck. A cellar far from the bar adds a walk to every keg change, and keg changes happen at the busiest moment by definition. A room the bar cannot see needs someone on the floor on nights a better-laid-out room would not.

One extra person per shift, every shift, for the length of a lease is a large number. Put it in the comparison beside everything in hiring and training the crew.

Confirm zoning and the license in writing

Two written answers before pass three, not after.

Ask the local zoning authority whether a brewery with on-site consumption is permitted at that specific address and what further approval it would need.

Ask your state alcohol beverage control board whether the license you intend to hold can be exercised there and what conditions attach. In Texas that is the TABC, in Pennsylvania the PLCB, in North Carolina the NC ABC Commission.

Requirements vary by state and municipality, so confirm with the board that governs your address and take advice from a licensed attorney on the lease and the license.

The federal side attaches to the premises too. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: Starting a TTB-Regulated Business: Brewery page sets out application and premises information. A brewer must provide this information. Read it before finalizing a layout rather than after.

The planning, financing and insurance half of a site decision sits in the U.S. Small Business Administration: SBA Business Guide.

What could I add later?

Ask at the finalist stage what the building would allow you to add. Room for more tanks, space for a packaging line, an adjacent unit that might come available, an outdoor area that could be licensed.

You are not committing to any of it. You are avoiding a building that forecloses everything, since every route to more volume needs physical room somewhere. The fuller version of the site decision sits in the location decision framework.

Read next: Brewery and taproom expansion: the parts worth your attention.

Common questions

How many buildings should I look at?

Enough that at least three pass the desk work. Choosing between one option and nothing is not a choice, and the first viable building always looks better than it is.

Can I trust the landlord's square footage?

Measure it. Measure the ceiling height especially, since it is quoted generously and it decides whether your tanks fit.

Is a former restaurant a good starting point?

Often, for restrooms and some drainage. Frequently not, for ceiling height and for getting tanks through the door. Measure before you get attached.

Should I bring a brewer to the viewing?

For the final two, yes. Someone who has installed equipment sees clearance, access and service problems that are invisible to everybody else.