Preparing a brewery for an excise or safety inspection
Excise, food safety, fire and pollution inspections can arrive with little warning. We cover what inspectors usually look at, the records and checks that keep a brewery ready and how to run the visit calmly.
Be ready every day, not on the day
A brewery that prepares for inspections only when one is announced will always be scrambling. The breweries that handle them calmly treat inspection-readiness as part of daily work: registers filled in every shift, stock that matches the tanks and a plant that is safe whether or not anyone is watching.
Which authorities inspect you and what they check depends on your state and your licences. Excise, food safety under FSSAI, fire, the pollution control board and labour departments may all have a role. Rules vary by state and change, so confirm the current requirements with your licensing adviser. What follows is the general pattern, not legal advice.
Excise: stock that reconciles
Excise inspection centres on accounting for every litre. Typically an inspector will compare your registers with what is physically in the tanks and with what you have sold.
- Keep production, stock and dispatch or sales registers current, filled in at the time, not reconstructed later.
- Keep the calibration chart for every tank. The volume you record must come from a dip or sight glass reading against that chart.
- Record losses and wastage with a reason, whether trub, a dumped batch or line cleaning.
- Keep licences and approvals displayed or immediately to hand.
The floor-level test is simple. Pick a bright tank, read its level, look it up on the calibration chart and compare it with the register. If the brewer on shift cannot do that in two minutes, fix that first. Our guide to the daily excise routine sets out the daily habits behind it.
Food safety: show your system
A food safety inspector wants evidence that you control hygiene and quality as a routine. Have ready:
- Cleaning and sanitation records for tanks, lines and the brewhouse.
- Water test reports and any product analysis your licence requires.
- Pest control contracts and service records.
- Staff hygiene and health records where your licence requires them.
- Supplier records for malt, hops and other ingredients, with batch traceability.
These come naturally from a working quality system. If they do not exist yet, building them in a hurry before an inspection is miserable work.
Safety: walk the floor as an inspector would
Fire and factory safety checks look at the plant itself. Walk it with fresh eyes once a month:
- Fire extinguishers serviced and tagged, exits and passages clear.
- CO2 and other gas cylinders chained upright, CO2 monitoring working in enclosed cellars.
- Caustic and acid stored separately, labelled, with safety data sheets and an eyewash nearby.
- Pressure relief valves on tanks in place and checked, electrical panels closed and dry.
- PPE issued and worn, first aid kit stocked, training records kept.
Run a mock inspection monthly
Once a month, have someone other than the head brewer play inspector for an hour. Pick three tanks and reconcile them. Ask for last week's CIP records and a pest control report. Check the extinguisher tags. Write down every gap and close it before next month.
Rotate who plays inspector so the whole team learns where the records are. A brewery where only the owner knows the location of the calibration charts is not ready, whatever state the charts are in.
This is also where the loss audit earns its place. Unexplained losses look the same to an excise officer as unrecorded sales.
On the day
Decide in advance who receives an inspector: usually the owner or head brewer, with the registers. Be courteous, answer what is asked and show records rather than explaining from memory. Do not argue on the spot about a finding. Note exactly what was raised, ask for it in writing if a notice follows and respond within the time given, ideally through your adviser.
Afterwards, add every point raised to next month's mock inspection list so it does not come up twice.
Keep a file of every inspection: the date, who came, what they looked at, what they raised and how you closed it. Over a couple of years the file shows a pattern of good practice, which helps when licences come up for renewal or a new officer takes over your area.
Common questions
Which authorities inspect a brewery in India?
It depends on the state and your licences, but excise, food safety, fire, pollution control and labour authorities may all inspect. Check the current requirements with a licensing adviser.
What does an excise inspector check in a brewery?
Typically that registers are current and that recorded stock matches the physical volume in tanks, read against calibration charts, along with recorded losses and sales.
How can a brewery stay ready for inspections?
Keep registers and quality records current every shift and run a monthly mock inspection. Close every gap it finds before the next one.
