Skip to content
CoverMatch
INDUSTRY CHECKLIST · DISTILLERIES

The distillery insurance checklist

QUICK ANSWER

Distilleries usually carry general liability, liquor liability and product liability. Distilleries boil flammable spirit in stills and age it in warehouses full of barrels, which makes fire and explosion the exposures that decide whether a carrier will quote, before the tasting room and the bottles come up. Your landlord and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below covers who asks and how to check what you have.

Add your policies Get matched
Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated
Coverage scoreA distillerie with the right wallet
General LiabilityRenews in 47d
Liquor LiabilityLive cert ✓
Product LiabilityCan switch
CoverMatch Your general liability renews in 41 days. Want it shopped before your landlord asks for the new certificate?
YOUR CHECKLIST

Tick what you already have

The score updates as you go. Save it and the wallet remembers.

Checklist score13 lines still open
Get matched for the 13 missing lines Already have these policies? Bring them here →

Who asks a distillery for what

Who What they usually want to see
Landlords & commercial leases General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Event venues & caterers' clients General liability naming the venue, and liquor liability where you pour

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

  1. General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
  2. Liquor liability declarations and forms. The limit, and the forms list checked for an assault-and-battery exclusion, which removes the most common claim.
  3. Products–completed operations. The aggregate, any vendors endorsement naming buyers as additional insureds, and exclusions for specific products or markets.
  4. Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
  5. Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
  6. Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.
  7. Equipment breakdown. The limit, the covered equipment, spoilage and business income under breakdown, and the deductible.
  8. Umbrella schedule of underlying insurance. Each primary policy listed with the limits the umbrella expects; a gap between the two is uninsured.
  9. Pollution liability. Site-based or contractors form, claims-made or occurrence, the materials named (mold, asbestos, lead, fuels), and transport and disposal coverage.
  10. Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
  11. Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
  12. Special events coverage. Whether the annual policy already covers your events or each needs a separate policy, and the additional-insured wording venues ask for.
  13. Crime declarations. Employee theft, forgery, funds-transfer fraud and social engineering each have their own limit; third-party coverage if you work in clients' premises.

What usually goes wrong for distilleries

  • Barrel warehouses valued below the spirit inside them.
  • Ethanol vapour and still fires with no engineering review the carrier can see.
  • A vendor agreement that requires the retailer be named as additional insured on a vendors endorsement the policy does not carry.
  • An assault-and-battery exclusion on the liquor policy, which removes the most common claim in a bar.
  • Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
  • Property values set when the doors opened and never raised.

What underwriters will ask a distillery

  • Still capacity and fuel, warehouse inventory value, tasting-room sales and events, and fire protection in place
  • Where the product is sold (own shop, wholesale, online, out of state)
  • Allergen controls, lot tracking and any recall plan
  • Share of sales that is alcohol
  • Server training, closing hours and any entertainment or dancing
  • Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.

Questions people actually ask

Why do some carriers decline distilleries?

Fire and explosion. Carriers that write them want ventilation, electrical classification in the still room, suppression and a fire-department plan. Have the engineering in hand before asking for quotes; it is what moves the answer from no to a number.

How is aging inventory valued for insurance?

By the spirit's value as it ages, not the cost of the barrel, with a limit that grows as the warehouse fills. Under-insured barrel inventory is the most common gap in distillery policies.

What does a grocery chain or distributor want from a distillery before it stocks the product?

A product liability limit, often with an umbrella above it, the buyer named as additional insured on a vendors endorsement, and sometimes recall expense coverage. Each is a line on the certificate; the vendor agreement's insurance exhibit says which.

Does general liability cover a fight or a drunk-driving claim after we served someone?

No. Liquor liability does, as long as the policy does not carry an assault-and-battery exclusion. Check the forms list; a liquor policy with that exclusion covers very little of what actually happens after midnight.

Doesn't my landlord's insurance cover my distillery?

It covers the building. The lease almost always makes you responsible for your own improvements, equipment and stock, for injuries inside your space, and for naming the landlord as additional insured on your liability policy. Read the insurance clause; the contract checker in the wallet will pull it out for you.

MANAGE IT IN THE APP

Every policy, renewal and live certificate in one wallet.

Scan a dec page and the card appears. Share a live certificate link that updates itself. Get matched when a renewal comes around.

Add your policiesGet matched

Keep reading

CHECKLISTThe accounting firm insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe active adult community association insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe acupuncture practice insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe adult day care center insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe adult rec league insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe after-school program insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe farm insurance checklist CHECKLISTThe appliance repair company insurance checklist