025 - Purchasing an Existing Brewery: Legal Guidance

The Start A Brewery Podcast

Welcome back to Season II of the Start A Brewery podcast! We begin with a requested topic: Purchasing an Existing Brewery. This covers several episodes, starting with a strategic overview of legal issues and general strategies for this approach. Candace, Brook Bristow, and Jeff O’Brien offer the perfect storm of stories, best practices, situations to avoid, plus stuff that attorneys wrangle often….but the potential purchaser is usually navigating for the first time. Dive in to set yourself a solid foundation for this new podcast season!

Guests

Jeff O’Brien, Chestnut Cambronne, PA

Jeff O’Brien is a partner with Chestnut Cambronne and serves as outside general counsel to a wide variety of small and closely held businesses as well as real estate investors and developers. He has significant experience working with craft breweries, distilleries, and a variety of other liquor and hospitality focused businesses on an array of issues including entity formation, financing, real estate matters, intellectual property protection, operational issues, securities law, and distribution contracts. Jeff also advises clients in the industrial hemp and cannabis industries and is a member of the Minnesota Industrial Hemp Association’s Board of Directors.

Jeff’s practice is regional and national in scope. In addition to Minnesota, Mr. O’Brien is admitted to practice in the States of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and before the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, the District of South Dakota and the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Non-Resident Lawyers Division (NRLD), and he regularly assists businesses across the United States on matters pertaining to Federal securities law, with an emphasis on exempt offerings under Regulation D and Regulation CF.

A frequent lecturer and writer, Jeff has presented and written articles on a variety of business and real estate topics. He has a blog site, Jeffrey O’Brien Today, and a craft beverage law website which contains his articles, podcasts and other resources pertinent to craft beverage law.

Jeff has been listed as a Minnesota Super Lawyer eight times, including 2023. Previously he had been named a “Rising Star” by Minnesota Super Lawyers every year from 2008-12, a designation reserved for only 2.5% of all attorneys in Minnesota. He was named as one of the “40 Under Forty” in 2014 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal and a Minnesota Monthly Top Lawyer for 2023.

Jeff regularly appears as the “Lawyer Extraordinaire” on Jon Justice in the Morning (NewsTalk 1130 AM) and The BS Show podcast with Bob Sansevere.

Brook Bristow, Bristow Beverage Law

Founder and Managing Attorney Brook Bristow has practiced law since 2007 in both transactional and litigation roles. Representing hundreds of clients from start-ups to national brands, Brook counsels members of the food and beverage industry. He regularly advises on federal and state regulatory compliance, licensing, contracts, intellectual property, and federal label and formula approvals, among other topics.

He has some street cred, having served as co-founder of Greenville Craft Beer Week, president of the Craft Beer Attorney Coalition, president of the Upstate Brewtopians homebrew club, and as the inaugural Executive Director of the South Carolina Brewers Guild. He is also Cicerone Program Certified Beer Server. Brook holds a B.A. in Advertising from the University of South Carolina, and a J.D. from Mercer University, where he served on the Mercer Law Review. He is licensed in the state of South Carolina. He enjoys Central Coast Zinfandel, Aged Rum, and can brew a passable IPA.

About StartABrewery

StartABrewery is a collaboration amongst a fun group of craft beer industry veterans who are often invited to speak at beer business / brewing education programs. Each has offered to share their knowledge and experience to support the craft beer community as a whole by helping fledgling breweries in planning.

Conceived and coordinated by Candace L. Moon, The Craft Beer Attorney, and Laura Lodge of Customized Craft Beer Programs, StartABrewery is provided as an educational resource for those dreaming of opening a brewery, those who are taking steps to make their dream a reality, and those who are opening their brewery doors and living it.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Positive Fat Bass Intro Loop by WinnieTheMoog
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6093-positive-fat-bass-intro-loop
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license