Brewery & Distillery Safety Inspection Checklist

Operating a brewery or distillery comes with unique safety challenges—from confined space hazards in fermentation tanks to CO2 exposure risks, flammable alcohol vapors, heavy equipment operation, and caustic cleaning chemicals. This Brewery & Distillery Safety Inspection Checklist gives you a structured, repeatable way to document safety compliance across your production floor, cellar operations, and storage areas.

Why breweries and distilleries need dedicated safety checklists

Craft beverage production blends food manufacturing with industrial processes, creating a complex safety landscape. Confined spaces like fermentation vessels, bright beer tanks, and mash tuns pose asphyxiation and engulfment risks. Carbon dioxide buildup from active fermentation can displace oxygen without warning. Ethanol vapor creates fire and explosion hazards. Forklifts move heavy pallets through tight spaces. Caustic cleaners like sodium hydroxide and acids demand careful handling and storage.

Traditional paper checklists get lost, illegible, or incomplete. Generic safety apps don't capture the specific risks of beverage alcohol production. This Paperform template is purpose-built for breweries, distilleries, cideries, and meaderies that need to stay compliant with OSHA confined space entry regulations (29 CFR 1910.146), hazard communication standards, and fire safety codes—while keeping inspections fast and actionable for your safety officer, brewmaster, or production manager.

What this brewery safety checklist covers

This template walks your team through critical safety zones and equipment:

• Confined space entry permits: Document pre-entry atmospheric testing, ventilation setup, retrieval equipment, attendant assignment, and authorized entry personnel for tanks, kettles, and silos
• CO2 monitoring equipment: Verify calibration, placement, and alarm functionality of fixed and portable gas detectors in cellars, fermentation rooms, and enclosed spaces
• Fire suppression systems: Inspect sprinklers, foam systems, CO2 or dry chemical extinguishers, emergency shutoffs, and clearances around boilers and stills
• Forklift operation zones: Check floor markings, pedestrian barriers, dock plate condition, load limits, operator certifications, and pre-shift vehicle inspections
• Chemical storage compliance: Confirm SDS availability, secondary containment, segregation of incompatibles (acids vs. bases), labeling, eyewash stations, and PPE access

Each section uses yes/no toggles, conditional follow-up fields for non-compliant items, photo uploads for documentation, and space for corrective action notes. You can customize the checklist to match your facility layout, add distillery-specific items like still safety valves or denaturing room checks, or integrate brewery-specific concerns like grain dust in the mill room.

How breweries and distilleries use Paperform for safety inspections

Safety managers and production leads use this template to:

• Run daily or weekly safety walkthroughs before shift start, capturing issues in real time on a tablet or phone
• Create permit-to-work records for confined space entry, hot work, or lockout/tagout procedures with timestamped submissions and photo proof
• Track corrective actions by routing flagged items to maintenance, operations, or the safety committee via email notifications or integrations
• Build compliance audit trails for TTB, OSHA, local fire marshal, or insurance inspections with searchable, exportable submission records
• Onboard new staff by giving them a clear picture of facility hazards and control measures through the checklist itself

Because Paperform works offline and syncs when you reconnect, inspectors can complete checklists even in walk-in coolers, cellars, or outdoor tank farms where Wi-Fi is spotty.

Automate safety workflows with Stepper

Once your checklist is submitted, you can use Stepper (Paperform's AI-native workflow builder at stepper.io) to turn inspection data into action:

• Route non-compliant findings to the right department or contractor based on the issue type (electrical, mechanical, chemical, structural)
• Create work orders in your maintenance software or project management tool for repairs and follow-up
• Send summary reports to your safety committee, insurance broker, or compliance officer on a weekly or monthly cadence
• Update compliance dashboards in Google Sheets, Airtable, or your ERP system so leadership can see trends and close-out rates

This means safety inspections don't disappear into a filing cabinet—they become part of a continuous improvement loop that keeps your team safe and your facility audit-ready.

Built for craft beverage professionals

Whether you're a head brewer at a 10-barrel brewpub, a distillery operations manager scaling to 5,000 cases a month, or a safety coordinator managing multiple production sites, this template adapts to your workflow. Paperform's conditional logic lets you show or hide sections based on facility type (brewery vs. distillery), production volume, or specific hazards present. The doc-style editor makes it easy to add your logo, update inspection criteria as regulations change, or translate the form for multilingual production teams.

Paperform is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers data residency controls, so your safety records stay secure and meet regulatory requirements. With native integrations to Slack, Google Drive, Airtable, and thousands of apps via Stepper, Zapier, or webhooks, your safety data flows directly into the systems your team already uses—no double entry, no lost reports.

Who this template is for

This brewery and distillery safety checklist is ideal for:

• Craft breweries and microbreweries managing fermentation cellars, packaging lines, and taprooms
• Distilleries handling flammable spirits, still operations, barrel storage, and bottling
• Cideries and meaderies with tank farms, pressing equipment, and chemical sanitation
• Beverage contract manufacturers and co-packers with multi-client production environments
• Safety officers, quality managers, and production supervisors responsible for OSHA compliance and risk mitigation

If you're tired of incomplete paper checklists, missed corrective actions, or scrambling to find records during an audit, this template gives you a single, professional system for documenting and improving safety across your facility. Start using Paperform today and turn safety inspections into a proactive, data-driven part of your brewing or distilling operation.