Federal pilot brewing plant bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.
A brewery that wants to run research, analytical, or experimental brewing at a separate location — off its main bonded brewery premises — needs the TTB to authorize a pilot brewing plant under 27 CFR part 25, subpart S. Authorization requires a brewer's bond on TTB F 5130.22, filed under 27 CFR 25.274, with a penal sum from a $500 floor to a $50,000 ceiling. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum, after a quick soft credit check that never affects your score.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
No underwriting queue for a standard pilot brewing plant bond — enter your penal sum, pay, and file with the TTB. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your brewery details, the pilot plant location, the penal sum TTB requires, and the effective date — that is the entire application.
Issued on the spot
Standard penal sums issue as soon as you pay. Larger amounts near the $50,000 ceiling may get a quick soft-pull review, which never affects your credit score.
File with the TTB
Submit the executed bond (TTB F 5130.22) with your pilot brewing plant application — TTB must authorize the plant before you operate it. Wet-ink originals mailed when needed.
What it is and who needs it.
What the pilot brewing plant bond actually covers
A pilot brewing plant is a facility a brewer operates off its main brewery premises solely for research, analytical, experimental, or developmental purposes relating to beer or brewery operations — think a test-batch or R&D site, not a production line. Under 27 CFR part 25, subpart S, the appropriate TTB officer must authorize the plant, and only after finding the operation will not jeopardize the revenue. Beer may leave a pilot plant only for analysis or organoleptic (taste) examination, and can move to or from a brewery of the same ownership without tax.
To get that authorization, 27 CFR 25.274 requires the applicant to execute and file a brewer's bond on TTB F 5130.22. The penal sum is computed as the potential tax liability of the maximum quantity of beer on hand, in transit to the plant, and unaccounted for at any one time, using the excise-tax rate in 26 U.S.C. 5051 — and the bond (or combined original-plus-strengthening bonds) may not exceed $50,000 or fall below $500.
A person already qualified as a brewer who is exempt from the general brewer's-bond requirement under 27 CFR 25.91(e) does not need a separate bond for the pilot plant. Everyone else files this bond alongside the pilot brewing plant application; we price it from a $100 minimum after a quick soft credit check that never affects your score.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued on the spot.
Enter the penal sum your pilot brewing plant authorization requires — the executed bond is generated on payment, ready to file with TTB.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Federal bonds.
Pilot brewing plant bond, issued today.
Pricing from $100. Enter the penal sum TTB requires and file the same day.