With the announcement of upcoming audits of farm breweries by the State Liquor Authority, farm breweries will want to get their records in order. Luckily the rules are fairly straightforward. The records that must be kept and maintained for at least 2 years:

-All business transactions – purchases for the brewery and invoices for all sales of products
-Bank records
-Employee/payroll records
-Production records in accordance with TTB requirements
-Corporate records showing meeting minutes, appointment of officers & directors, and ownership
-Tax returns and supporting documentation

When purchasing NY ingredients, be sure the purchase records indicate they are NY grown hops or barley (as well as other ingredients). You can rely on the affirmation of the seller as to their origin, as you have no reason to suspect it is not truthful.

While the brewery must keep records of its ingredient purchases and that each batch was made with the minimum required amount of those NY ingredients, it does NOT have to reveal its proprietary formulas during an audit.

The records must be accessible at the brewery. If they can be accessed via a computer or mobile device at the brewery, the hardcopy records do not need to be on-site. However, whenever possible, on-site records storage is the best practice.