Liquor & Indiana

wabanzi

Anyone here with experience in doing their own full bar in this crazy state?  It seems we have to hire a "licensed alcoholic beverage caterer" in order to serve our signature drinks (hard alcohol) in addition to beer and wine.

Our food caterer from a local restaurant does not have a full liquor licensed (beer & wine only at his restaurant).

We want to provide our own alcohol and have hire bartenders (licensed) to serve it.  At least that was the plan.

MrsAitch

I think you should be fine. We are bringing in our own alcohol and hiring our caterer's bartenders...perhaps you should hire different bartenders with a full license? You might check and see if your venue knows about this too--if they let you bring in your own booze, this may be an issue they're familiar with.

wabanzi

MrsAitch said:

I think you should be fine. We are bringing in our own alcohol and hiring our caterer's bartenders...perhaps you should hire different bartenders with a full license? You might check and see if your venue knows about this too--if they let you bring in your own booze, this may be an issue they're familiar with.

Thank you for responding :-)  I think our problem is our caterer only has a wine/beer license.  So either we hire another caterer for the bar, or we have to stick to wine & beer. Which kinda sucks.

boxjelly

I think you can get a permit for a single day for 3 way.  Not sure about the cost though.

barcabebe

Do you have any friends that are bartenders or know bartenders? I *think* it doesn't necessarily have to be a "beverage caterer". From what my venue said, to bring in our own alcohol, the bartender needs to have license (full in your case) a temporary wine/beer permit from in.gov (form 35494) and show proof of Certificate of Server training program. She also mentioned that they may ask for a floor plan of the facility.

So, the permit she told me about is only for wine and beer, but perhaps there is the three way one that boxjelly mentioned. I just wanted to mention the other items (Certificate of Server & floor plan) in case you will need those to get your permit too.

Best of luck, and report back if you find a solution!

wabanzi

Thank you both, but there is no license available for hard alcohol in Indiana.  Just beer and wine is available.  The caterer or someone hired for the event has to hold a site licensed to serve mixed drinks.  Luckily, we found someone and hired them as our bartender.

And we were very lucky.  Most caterers/bartenders that have this license charge full retail for alcohol and do not allow you to purchase your own.  

barcabebe

Wow, that's crazy! I'm glad you found someone.