Steps for going legal (cidery) in California

I've been doing a lot of research and been getting a little confused about where to start and who to start with as far as going legal and getting a license, label approval, supply and all the rest of that that goes along with going into production...
Can someone give me a good starting place on how I can get the ball rolling?
Is there a website somewhere that will tell you what the first thing to do is, then the second, then the third?

I know I need to contact the California ABC and the federal TTB, But do I just contact them and say "hey, I want to do a cidery"? Or should I contact them about a specific type of licensing first?

First you need to decide on your business model, are you going to only sell for offsite consumption? Are you going to have a tasting room, are you going to sell anything other than cider?

Then you need to find out if they classify cider as beer or wine. More than likely you will need a #23 license.

Biohazard said:

First you need to decide on your business model, are you going to only sell for offsite consumption? Are you going to have a tasting room, are you going to sell anything other than cider?

Then you need to find out if they classify cider as beer or wine. More than likely you will need a #23 license.

Click to expand...

They categorize cider as specialty wine... I would like to sell to grocery stores, bars and restaurants primarily. A tasting room would be cool if I can do that. The best bet is to try to sell to restaurants bars and grocery stores...

Try this-- http://www.newcomb-law.com/component/content/article/34-starting-a-winery-in-california

...Sara

On the east coast it's a lot easier if you have a farm. Then you can go cheap with a farm-winery

saramc said:

Try this-- http://www.newcomb-law.com/component/content/article/34-starting-a-winery-in-california

...Sara

Click to expand...

Excellent.

This is a little bit , but it would sure be nice to have a similar list for brewing (nano and/or micro) and cideries in each state. The question(s) come up enough on HBT that it might be worth a wiki page or sticky.

I probably should have posted here, but I posted in your 6.8% ABV thread.

Try this site first:
http://www.ttb.gov/

Little off topic but in NY you don't need a farm to be a farm winery,brewery, or distillery. You just need a certain percentage of your ingredients to be grown/ produced in the state. Might be something like that where you live.