If the OP or anybody else is interested in how to start a small brewery, check out my blog:
http://crookedrunbrewing.wordpress.com/
I started at age 25 totally poor with money raised on Kickstarter. Today we are a few months away from opening a second 10 BBL location, we won gold at World Beer Cup this year, and were named best nanobrewery in the region by Washington Post. The best part is that we used an SBA loan to expand, so I barely had to give up any ownership to get capital.
One thing I have learned along the way is that the successful businesses explore every avenue to make sure they are compliant with local regulations. The beach bar that is across the street from our brewery got shut down because they were supposed to perform some work on their property to control run-off, but didn't. They got fined $500/day and had to close their outdoor seating for a month while they finally got around to making the required changes. Another area brewery had to close down their deck while they got structural drawings submitted since the county decided it was a permanent structure. Another brewery in planning got squashed by neighbors who were not OK with a farm brewery on their road, after the equipment was already purchased.
My point is that it is way better to take care of this stuff first, because depending on how deep your pockets are, being forced to close part or all of your business can sink you, and potentially leave you personally destitute.
For the expansion, the first thing we did is get a confirmation of use from the county. It's just a letter that states that the intended use is acceptable under the zoning. And that doesn't even mean that it necessarily is--then there's your building permit, MEP, etc. We are fortunate to have a lot of experience in construction.
