Wednesday 22 January 2014

More Red Tape than Red Stripe


Who would have thought that the noble craft of brewing was a bureaucratic minefield? I suppose it’s symptomatic of the nanny state we now live in, the PC world, the H&S obsessed regime. Anyhow if you have any romantic notions that setting up a microbrewery is simply about honest hard graft in a quaint disused farm building then let me highlight a few of the regulatory hoops (consents) you need to jump through.

So far we have encountered:
  • Landlord Approval – If you lease your brewery premises then, depending on the Heads of Terms of your lease, you may have to ask permission from your landlord for any building works such as internal partitioning or external signage. 
  • Planning Application – If your premises is B2 use (general industrial) then you will not need planning consent to brew beer and sell on to landlords. However, you will need to make a planning application for on-sales, like brewery tours, and off-sales such as selling directly to the public for home use. If you intend to convert a farm building to a brewery then you most likely need to apply for change of use.
  • Building Control – Even if you can carry out modifications to your brewery under “permitteddevelopment”, you will still need Building Regulations approval through your local Building Control Office
  • Brewing Licence – You must be registered with HMRC Customs & Excise before you start brewing beer. This is predominantly so that they can claim duty on the beer you produce. Registration with HMRC is a separate piece of red tape to the Alcohol Licence below. 
  • Alcohol Licence – The alcohol licensing laws of the United Kingdom regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol. Premises selling alcohol must be licensed by the local authority. The individual responsible for the premises, known as the Designated Premises Supervisor, must also hold a personal licence that is also issued by the Local Authority. 
  • Trade Effluent Consent – As the brewery is likely to discharge trade effluent into a public foul sewer, you must get permission from the local Water Authority before any discharges take place. Farm building can be tricky if there is no sewer as the brewery effluent is not allowed to run-off untreated to groundwater or nautural water courses. 
  • Environmental Health Microbreweries are also classed as food manufacturing facilities and must therefore be registered with your local Environmental Health Officer (EHO) for permission to brew. Equipment specification is not a problem with any EHO, but you will need to clear the external environmental impact and the building specification. 
  • Food Standards Agency (FSA) The production, processing, distribution, retail, packaging and labelling of food stuffs are governed by a mass of laws, regulations, codes of practice and guidance. The FSA offer guidance and advice on regulations related to food hygeine, including the General Food law and Food Standards Act. 
  • HACCP – The HazardAnalysis and Critical Control Point is a system that helps food business operators look at how they handle food and introduce procedures to make sure the food produced is safe to eat. 
  • UKASTA and FMA – If you sell on your used malt for animal feed then it will need to be UKASTA (UK Agricultural Supply Trade Association) or FMA (Fertiliser Manufacturers Association) approved. The two bodies are now governed by the AgriculturalIndustries Confederation (AIC). 
  • Trading Standards If you intend to bottle or package beer, you should also seek advice from the Trading Standards Institute. Check that your marketing material, websites, packaging etc conform to the Misleading Marketing Regulations and Unfair Trading Regulations. 
  • Healthand Safety Executive This is a minefield in itself. You will need to comply with all H&S law, in particular the Health and Safety at Work Act. For example, you will need to conduct a risk assessment and compile a H&S Policy covering how to prevent and deal with accidents. As brewers use chemicals you will need to adhere to the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations. And so on …
So have I missed anything? Any other advice from the friendly brewers out there? We have a good size team at Haresfoot and fortunately one of our directors is a H&S expert, providing the rest of us with time to brew and sell beer.

One reason we ended up in our industrial unit at 2 River Park, rather than our initial dream of farm buildings, is that it is so much easier to meet the above consents in a modern building, especially the ones related to food hygiene.

Despite my opening rant, I have to say that the people at the regulatory bodies and authorities that we have dealt with have all been very helpful, and all seem to welcome the idea of a local brewery. My advice is don't put off checking you meet the various regulations and seek advice ealry rather than later on when you may be subjected to heavy fines.

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