One of my favorite things to do when I enter a brewery is to ask for the tour. Brewery tours are a wonderful way to engage your customer but they also open your business to a lot of risks.
Recently, a brewery in Ohio experienced a fermentation tank exploding during a tour. Beer showered the tour-goers and tank crashed into the wall of the taproom. Several of the tour members filed lawsuits against the brewery with claims of suffering injuries and damages that included medical expenses, loss of wages, and physical impairment. The brewery eventually settled out of court with the plaintiffs for over 1 million dollars.
If your brewery offers tours, insurance is your best protection from risk. Tour Insurance is a risk management tools to cover your business from unforeseen accidents and lawsuits. To minimize additional risk here are a few tips to make your tours safe and successful.
• Make sure the guests’ size for the tours is manageable. For larger tours use more than 1 guide.
• Tour guides should be very observant and notice any guests that may wander off. Keep all guests in a group where they can be seen and monitored.
• Assume that tour-goers do not have brewery safety knowledge so train your tour guides to be confident and assertive and tell the guest what they should and should not be doing on the tour.
• If you have an intoxicated and disruptive tour-goer, do not be afraid to ask them to leave the tour and escort them off the brewery.
• Keep the tour group away from slick and hot areas.
• Limited the beer intake to 1 or 2 rounds before the tour to minimize intoxication during the tour.
Cannas Capital has years of experience in the Craft-Brewing and Cannabis Industry where we specialize in creating an insurance portfolio. Our office is located in West Michigan but we cover Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois.
Cimone Casson 