A brewery, winery, or distillery equipment appraisal is an independent opinion of value for the machinery used to make and package beer, wine, or spirits. Lenders, owners, CPAs, attorneys, and buyers use these reports for financing, financial reporting, tax filings, business sales, and disputes. Each report from Sencer Appraisal Associates is signed by an ASA-accredited appraiser and prepared under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and aligned with International Valuation Standards (IVS) when reporting calls for it.
Our work has included large multi-vessel wineries and breweries, brewhouses, fermentation cellars, bottling lines, canning and kegging lines, winery crush pads, tank farms, barrel programs, and pot, column, and hybrid stills. These assignments have supported bank and Small Business Administration (SBA) lending, purchase price allocations, impairment testing, estate planning, asset transfers, and financial reporting. The work spans California wine country to the Pacific Northwest, as well as New York and across the East Coast.
Need a value you can stand behind? Call Sencer Appraisal at 888-473-6237 or use the Request a Proposal form.
When a brewery, winery, or distillery needs an equipment appraisal
The right appraisal depends on your situation, your jurisdiction, and why you need the report. Common reasons include:
- Financing and collateral loans. Banks, credit unions, and private lenders need a credible value to set borrowing capacity and secure a loan, including SBA 7(a) and 504 loans and other asset-based lending.
- Business sales, mergers, and acquisitions. An independent equipment valuation supports due diligence and negotiations for buyers, sellers, and advisers.Financing and collateral loans. Banks, credit unions, and private lenders need a credible value to set borrowing capacity and secure a loan, including SBA 7(a) and 504 loans and other asset-based lending.
Business sales, mergers, and acquisitions. An independent equipment valuation supports due diligence and negotiations for buyers, sellers, and advisers. - Divorce and litigation. A third-party opinion gives the court, counsel, and both sides a documented figure, which can be backed by expert witness testimony when a matter reaches trial.
- Buy-sell agreements and shareholder disputes. An appraisal of the underlying equipment helps the parties document asset value when ownership interests change hands. In California, Corporations Code section 2000 allows certain involuntary-dissolution proceedings to be resolved through a court-supervised purchase of the moving parties’ shares at fair value. In Delaware, section 262 of the General Corporation Law gives qualifying stockholders appraisal rights in specified transactions.
- Financial reporting and purchase price allocations. After an acquisition, equipment may be valued to allocate the purchase price, measure fair value, or test long-lived assets for impairment. Frameworks may include Accounting Standards Codification 805, Business Combinations (ASC 805); ASC 820, Fair Value Measurement; and ASC 360, Property, Plant, and Equipment under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); International Financial Reporting Standard 3, Business Combinations (IFRS 3); IFRS 13, Fair Value Measurement; International Accounting Standard 36, Impairment of Assets (IAS 36) under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS); and Internal Revenue Code section 1060 for U.S. federal tax filings of IRS Form 8594.
- Bankruptcy, restructuring, and secured-lender workouts. Trustees, lenders, and counsel rely on accredited appraisals for orderly and forced liquidation analysis, secured-claim treatment, and disposition planning.
- Estate and gift taxes, and succession. The IRS may require a qualified appraisal of business assets, and a documented equipment value supports estate planning, ownership transfers, and succession.
- Insurance. Replacement cost and actual cash value appraisals support the right coverage and give you an objective baseline to settle a claim after a fire, flood, or theft.
- Property tax and ad valorem appeals. An accredited appraisal supports an appeal by establishing defensible market value.
- Charitable contribution. When equipment is donated, the IRS requires a qualified appraisal to support Form 8283.
Who relies on our equipment appraisals
- Brewery, winery, and distillery owners and operators
- Banks, credit unions, and asset-based lenders, including SBA lenders
- CPAs and financial reporting teams
- Attorneys and litigators
- Mergers-and-acquisitions advisors, private equity, and corporate development teams
- Bankruptcy trustees and secured lenders working out a loan
- Insurers, risk managers, and brokers
- Estate administrators and fiduciaries
- Courts, tax authorities, and auditors reviewing the report
What brewery, winery, and distillery equipment we appraise
A brewery, winery, or distillery may combine several equipment markets under one roof. Our appraisers and expert associates have valued individual assets, complete production and packaging lines, and entire operating plants.
The photos below are from equipment appraisals completed by our own ASA-accredited appraisers.
Brewing systems and the brewhouse
Mash tuns, lauter tuns, hot liquor tanks, brew kettles, and whirlpools; wort chillers and heat exchangers; malt handling, roller mills, and grain silos.
A two-vessel brewhouse valued during a brewery appraisal.
Fermentation, conditioning, and cellar tanks
Jacketed conical fermenters and unitanks, brite and lagering tanks, and yeast tanks, along with the glycol chillers, cooling systems, and CO2 handling that keep them running.
A group of wine fermentation tanks valued during a winery appraisal.
Winery crush pad and cellar
Destemmers and crushers, membrane and pneumatic presses, sorting and must handling, stainless fermentation and variable-capacity storage tanks, oak barrels and cooperage, must and diaphragm pumps, filtration and reverse osmosis, and cellar refrigeration.
A grape press valued during a winery appraisal.
Distilling systems
Pot, column, and hybrid stills, mash and cook systems, fermenters, steam boilers, spirit safes, and barrels and racking.
A set of copper-clad whiskey distilling columns valued during a distillery appraisal.
Packaging, filling, kegging, and labeling
Canning and bottling lines, fillers and seamers, cappers and corkers, labelers, keg washers and kegging systems, crowler and case packers, conveyors, and palletizers.
Process support, utilities, and lab
Steam boilers, air compressors, water treatment and reverse osmosis, clean-in-place systems, process pumps, centrifuges and clarifiers, walk-in coolers, and quality-control lab instruments.
Related beverage production
Some of the same fermentation tanks, presses, canning lines, and bottling systems turn up in cider, kombucha, mead, ready-to-drink, and non-alcoholic production, and we value that equipment too.
We value equipment from makers including Marks, Bridgetown Brew Systems, Specific Mechanical, Premier Stainless, Ziemann, Bucher, Diemme, Della Toffola, Pellenc, Corson Distilling, Wild Goose, Cask, Meheen, Krones, Bertolaso, GAI, G&D Chillers, GEA, and Cleaver-Brooks, among many others. If your equipment is not listed here, contact us. We are glad to talk through your specific line.
Vineyard field and harvest equipment, such as tractors, mechanical grape harvesters, and sprayers, is covered on our farm and agricultural equipment appraisal page.
What affects used beverage equipment value
Used beverage equipment does not trade in a single market. A standard craft brewhouse, an oversized tank, and a custom bottling line have different buyer pools, removal costs, and resale paths. Value depends on condition, capacity, configuration, completeness, manufacturer support, and demand for that production scale. Missing controls, conveyors, tanks, or utility components can reduce the usefulness of an otherwise sound line.
The type of value also matters. Equipment that remains installed and operating may have a different value from the same assets sold for removal, and an orderly sale may produce a different result from a short liquidation period. An equipment valuation covers the tangible machinery and related operating assets. A business valuation is a separate assignment covering the enterprise, including brand, licenses, distribution, and cash flow. When a project needs both, we can coordinate with the business-valuation specialist so the analyses fit together.
How we handle your appraisal
1. Scope and written proposal
Tell us what needs to be valued, where it is, why you need it, and any deadline. We respond with next steps, timing, and a written fee proposal.
2. Asset list and records
We gather your equipment list, invoices, photographs, maintenance records, and available manufacturer, model, serial number, capacity, and configuration details.
3. Field inspection or desktop appraisal
When the intended use calls for observed condition and identification, an appraiser or expert associate inspects the equipment on site. When an on-site visit is not practical or necessary, a desktop equipment appraisal may be the faster and less expensive route if you can provide complete equipment records, details, and photographs.
4. Research and analysis
We research comparable sales, dealer offerings, auction results, and new-equipment costs where relevant. We then account for condition, capacity, completeness, configuration, installation, removal costs, and current demand.
5. Report delivery
You receive a signed, well-documented USPAP-compliant report, prepared for the intended users and purpose of the assignment, under IVS as applicable.
FAQ
Brewery, Winery, and Distillery Equipment Appraisal Frequently Asked Questions
Questions we are asked most often by brewery, winery, and distillery owners, their lenders, their accountants, and their counsel.
What is a brewery, winery, or distillery equipment appraisal?
What brewery equipment do you appraise?
What winery equipment do you appraise?
What distillery equipment do you appraise?
Is an equipment appraisal the same as a brewery or winery business valuation?
How do appraisers value brewery, winery, and distillery equipment?
What definition of value applies to brewery, winery, and distillery equipment?
Do you also appraise vineyard and field equipment?
How much does a brewery, winery, or distillery equipment appraisal cost?
Do I need an on-site inspection, or will a desktop appraisal work?
Who should appraise brewery, winery, or distillery equipment?
Where does Sencer Appraisal value brewery, winery & distillery equipment?
Projects are managed from our offices in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Oakland, California, supported by our network of expert associates.
We serve industry and offices across the Northeast, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, along with Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
We appraise equipment throughout the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
Our Southwestern work covers Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado, with appraisals performed on-site or on an uninspected desktop basis.
Prepared by Garrett Schwartz, FASA, CEA (Oakland office) and Matthew Edelstein, ASA (Chadds Ford office), principals of Sencer Appraisal Associates.