Craft Brewery

Intro

Who doesn't love beer?

Judging by the popularity of Michigan craft beer, the answer is “no one.” Last year, our 357 craft breweries produced 899,792 barrels of ales, IPAs, stouts, porters and other beers – or enough to provide nearly 3.7 gallons for every Michigander of legal drinking age.

The economic impact of all these suds? A cool $2.1 billion dollars for our state – and growing. In fact, data released in 2017 showed the national market for craft beer grew 22 percent from 2014 to 2016.

Beer is increasingly big business in Michigan – and our Craft Brewery Industry Group has grown right alongside the start-ups who are now upending the industry on a national level. Many aficionados got into craft beer for the love of brewing. But the industry has reached an inflection point, and many of those early entrepreneurs are now faced with lots of choices – and lots of opportunities.

How can you get the money to expand? If you have friends who want to invest, how can you make that happen? How can you protect yourself when partnering with others? Once it's successful, how do you make the business last? How do you locate financial incentives to support growth? How do you protect your personal assets?

As you grow, how do the wage and hour laws change? What about vendor contracts, supplier issues, MiOSHA and workplace safety, noncompetes and employee benefits?

And that’s not to mention state and federal regulations, trademark issues, intellectual property protection – even labels can become a contentious issue.

That's where Warner Norcross comes in. We have assembled a team of lawyers who love craft beer and understand the industry pressures that suppliers and brewers face when it comes to starting, growing, selling or closing their business.

Our skill sets are as diverse as our tastes – and our appetite for your success is unparalleled.

Some of the areas where we often assist include: