FAQ

There are four ways you could get a return on your investment in our future plans:

• If our business is profitable some day and our Board of Directors decides to issue dividends to our shareholders, you would receive a pro rata share of the dividends alongside all of our shareholders. This is not in our immediate plans at this time, but it is something we hope to be able to do someday in our future as we grow. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the perks of being an owner while you help us grow through your investment.
• We believe one day Armed Forces Brewing Company could be an acquisition target if the company grows and develops as we plan. It’s possible that someday we may get acquired in a transaction that we hope will give all shareholders a return on their investment.
• Another potential outcome would be an IPO, if market conditions are right and we feel that would be in the best interests of our company and our shareholders. If that happens, we hope you could sell your stock at that time for a return on your investment.
• While selling your shares is allowed after we close the stock offering, you will have to find a purchaser yourself as we will not be listed on any exchange, so there is no open marketplace for your shares. Right now, we do not plan to list these shares on a national exchange or another secondary market. There is no assurance the shares will ever be publicly listed or that a secondary market will develop. You should plan on holding onto these shares for the foreseeable future.

If you invest in Armed Forces Brewing Company, plan to hold your stock, enjoy the benefits of being an owner including your perks, and hopefully look for your return on investment in the future.

Unfortunately, giving stock as a gift isn’t easy. Then again, becoming a Navy SEAL or a Green Beret isn’t easy. Defending our country isn’t easy. 

But you can do it. Because great Americans can do great things!

We have to follow some strict securities laws that make this complicated.  But this is what the process will look like if you would like to give a gift of Armed Forces Brewing Company shares:

1. The person you give the gift to must be at least 21 years old.
2. You must buy the stock first to give it as a gift. Just like anyone else, you will fill out the online investment application in your name after clicking the INVEST button and pay for the Armed Forces Brewing Company stock.
3. After your shares have been issued to you (typically 1-2 weeks after you apply depending on when your funds are received and if additional info is needed from you) you can get a form from our SEC-registered transfer agent – Colonial. Colonial’s job is to manage the shares of our company. Colonial is legally the only entity that can transfer your shares to your gift recipient.
4. Colonial will give you a form to fill out to transfer the shares from your name to your gift recipient’s name. Please note you (or your gift recipient) will need to provide Colonial with similar private info for the gift recipient as you did when you invested – such as the recipient’s name and SSN. Colonial also charges you a $50 fee to make the transfer which you will pay them when you send them the form. You will also need to get a “Medallion Stamp” on the form which is a special stamp that’s used when you transfer securities. You can generally get this at your bank.

We didn’t make up these rules, and we wish the process were easier. If you have any other questions about the gifting process, reach out to our team at commandcenter@armedforcesbrewingco.com

Armed Forces Brewing Company is a military tribute brewery. We pay homage to the men and women – active duty and retired – of the great U.S. Military.  While are not formally affiliated or endorsed by the United States Military, most of our team either served our nation as part of the greatest fighting force in the world, or come from military families. The grand majority of our thousands of investors are also either active-duty military, veterans or their family members.

Yes, the federal law that allows us to sell stock in our company online, Regulation A, allows anyone to invest in our company at this early stage.  These types of investments used to only be available to rich and well-connected investors until the passage of a law called the JOBS Act.

Until 2015, only “accredited investors” (an individual who has a net worth in excess of $1M excluding his or her primary residence or whose annual income was in excess of $200,000 – $300,000 if joint income for the past two years) were allowed, in most cases, to invest in startups or other businesses that were not publicly traded. This meant that everyday folks did not have the chance to invest in early-stage companies or benefit from those companies when they grew, became profitable and went public with an IPO, for example.

Now, under Regulation A (also called Regulation A+ or Reg A+) the United States Securities and Exchange Commission allows companies like Armed Forces Brewing Company to take on investors regardless of how wealthy they are, so everyone who is “not accredited” as well as those who are “accredited,” have an opportunity to invest in early stage companies.

If you are not an accredited investor, you may invest but will be limited to investing no more than the greater of 10% of your net worth or 10% of your annual income.

Investors outside the USA may also be eligible to buy shares too. We’re more than happy for anyone and everyone to invest from anywhere in the world. We just ask that you ensure your own situation allows you to become an investor wherever you live or invest from.

That’s easy! Go to www.OwnArmedForcesBrewingCo.com and click on the INVEST NOW button. That will open the forms to invest, then you just need to fill them out and we’ll do the rest.

There are a number of ways that you can pay for your shares: credit/debit card, wire transfer, or ACH (you electronically transfer the money from your bank account to a bank account, who then releases it to us). Just check the box for your preferred payment method. Debit, credit or ACH your payment will usually be processed immediately, and for other methods you’ll receive the details in an email once you’ve completed the application. Make sure you follow the instructions in the email to complete your investment.

We’ve made the process easy for you.

Shares cost $12.50 each with the minimum investment being 16 shares for $200.00

You pay only for the number of shares you purchase.

When you complete your investment application online, your money will be transferred to a bank account where it will be held until it is accepted by Armed Forces Brewing Company after certain regulatory compliance takes place behind the scenes, with our SEC and FINRA registered broker-dealer, Cultivate Capital Group.

Once we accept your investment, and certain regulatory procedures are completed, your money will be transferred from the bank account to us and we will issue you your shares. You will receive a confirmation of your investment and a signed subscription agreement via email and you will become a proud owner in Armed Forces Brewing Company. Generally, this process takes between 2-4 weeks, and we plan to issue shares (meaning you officially become an investor) on a regular basis.

Occasionally, we will need additional information from you to complete your investment. If that happens, you will receive an e-mail from our broker-dealer with further instructions.

While selling your shares is allowed after we close the offering, you will have to find a purchaser yourself as we will not be listed on any exchange, so there is no open marketplace for your shares. Right now, we do not plan to list these shares on a national exchange or another secondary market. There is no assurance the shares will ever be publicly listed or that a secondary market will develop. You should plan on holding onto these shares for the foreseeable future. If you are buying these shares with the thought that you may want to sell them soon, you should not make this investment.

Yes, you can still invest. Because our securities offering has been qualified by the SEC for U.S. citizens to invest and investors outside the U.S. may also be eligible to buy shares. We’re more than happy for anyone and everyone to invest from almost anywhere in the world, we just ask that you ensure your own situation allows you to become an investor wherever you live or invest from under your local laws.

Shares will be available until 365 days after the date of SEC qualified our latest offering unless we extend this deadline for another 365 days or terminate it earlier or until we raise a total of $5 million, whichever is sooner.

For now, our shares are not publicly traded on any exchange. Once we close the offering, you will no longer be able to buy shares from us unless we hold another stock offering.

You will not have voting rights in Armed Forces Brewing Company so you do not have any say in the day to day management of the company. However, we certainly encourage feedback and suggestions, and are always willing to listen to our shareholders and their ideas.

Regulation A requires us to find out if you are an accredited investor or not, because of some limitations that apply on how much a non-accredited investor may invest. The law says you are an accredited investor if your income exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse or spousal equivalent) in each of the prior two years, and you reasonably expect the same for the current year, or you have a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse or spousal equivalent (excluding the value of your primary residence). There are other ways you may qualify as an accredited investor, and you can find the SEC’s definition here.

For now, our shares are not publicly traded on any exchange. Once we close the offering, you will no longer be able to buy shares from us unless we hold another stock offering.

We have to ask this question to be sure we comply with Regulation A which says that if you are a non-accredited investor, the amount you can invest is limited to no more than 10% of the greater of your annual income or net worth. But don’t worry, when you fill in the forms, we do the math for you. Just add your annual income and a calculation of your net worth (that is, the total value of everything you own less what you owe) where the form requests it.

Backup withholding is a tax levied on investment income as an investor withdraws it. Backup withholding helps agencies such as the IRS to be able to collect income taxes owed to them from investors’ earnings. Most likely, if you are subject to backup withholding, you would have been previously notified by the applicable taxing authority.

Some people refer to the way we are raising capital (and how we allow you to invest) as “crowdfunding.” Put simply: crowdfunding is raising funds from a crowd of people. The term might be new, but the concept is not – if you’ve ever thrown in $5 toward an office party, you have witnessed crowdfunding in action. The term “crowdfunding” generally applies to using the internet as a means of raising money online by collecting (relatively) small amounts of money from a large number of people.

If you give someone money on a rewards-based crowdfunding site, you are either making a donation or purchasing a product that doesn’t exist yet, but you do not own part of that company or product. If you give a company money like what we are doing at Armed Forces Brewing Company, you are investing in the company and will own part of that company.

Sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe are all rewards-based crowdfunding platforms. They allow people to raise money for a project by offering some sort of perk or reward in exchange for contributions. They are not allowed to sell ownership or equity in a business to raise funds.

Armed Forces Brewing Company’s stock offering utilizes equity crowdfunding, which allows companies to raise money for their business by selling stock online to people like you and you also get perks when you invest.

The JOBS Act allows everyday people to invest at an early stage in a private company. This is something that you were not allowed to do until 2015. Before that, only the rich and well-connected could invest in an early-stage company like Armed Forces Brewing Company.

The U.S. Congress passed the JOBS Act with bipartisan support and the President signed the bill in April of 2012. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized the rules for “Regulation A” of the JOBS Act that went into effect on June 19, 2015. That made it legal for companies like Armed Forces Brewing Company to sell our stock online to the general public, and made it legal for anyone to invest in a company like ours, for the first time in 80 years.

Regulation A (also called Regulation A+, Reg A or Reg A+ and even a “Mini-IPO”) is a section of the JOBS Act. For far less than the cost and effort of a traditional IPO, companies can use Regulation A to raise up to $75 million in an online stock offering, and all investors, not just the rich and well-connected, can invest in a company like Armed Forces Brewing Company. Regulation A changed and democratized investment in private, early-stage companies, making it available for everyone.

An accredited investor is someone who meets specific criteria outlined by the SEC and by federal law and is therefore eligible to participate in certain investment offerings.

In order to be considered accredited, an individual must have had an income of at least $200,000 for the past two years (or $300,000 combined with a spouse or spousal equivalent) or have a net worth of over $1 million not including their primary residence.

Institutions such as trusts, endowments and venture funds can also be certified as accredited provided that they have more than $5 million in assets.  There are other ways you may be considered an accredited investor.

If you want to read the exact language of the law defining the term “accredited investor” click here.

Regulation A does not require you to be accredited in order to invest in Armed Forces Brewing Company. Accredited investors are allowed to invest as much as they want, but those who are not accredited have limits on the amount they can invest.

Yes. All investments are inherently risky, and early-stage businesses are generally considered more high risk than established businesses. That’s why it’s so important that before you invest in any offering, you do your own due diligence so you understand not only the business and investment, but also the risk factors specific to our company. If you cannot afford to lose the money you plan to invest if things do not work out as our company hopes, you should not invest. Read and understand our investment documents and talk to your own advisors before you invest.

We want to invite anyone who likes what we are doing to be a part of our company from an early stage so you can help us grow and become not just a great company with awesome beer, but a community of people all pulling together to make that all happen.  We could have raised capital from investment banks and venture capital firms alone, but that is not what we are about. We are about being the best company we can be, so we wanted as many people like you to join us as possible.

Just click on the “Invest Now” button and fill in the blanks. The entire process takes about 10-15 minutes and is much like opening an account on Amazon or any other e-commerce site. We’ll ask for some additional information to identify you (as required by federal securities law) such as your SSN and date of birth. You have to electronically sign some forms to make it legal. We’ve tried to make the process as simple as possible, but if you have any questions feel free to email us at [email protected].

You sure can! Just make sure you fill in the same information (name, email, address).

No. You must be at least 21 years old to invest.

Yes, the minimum investment is $200.

There is no maximum you can invest (other than the total amount we are raising which is $5,000,000) if you are an accredited investor. If you are not an accredited investor, then you can invest no more than 10% of the greater of your annual income or net worth. When you invest, our online form does the calculations for you, so don’t worry about having to do the math yourself.

Absolutely! The more, the merrier.

Federal and state securities laws require our broker-dealer to verify your identity and to do certain compliance tests behind the scenes when you apply to invest. While we would prefer to not have to ask you for this information, the broker-dealer cannot do what federal law requires them to do unless we get that information from you. As an investor in our company, we want you to understand that we take the legal aspects of our job very seriously, and that we do our best to comply with all laws that apply to us, including these.

The personal information you provide to us will be provided in an encrypted manner, and we do what we can within the limitations of the existing computer and online world to protect that information.  We take your privacy seriously and will not distribute or sell your private information to anyone, other than regulatory bodies that require it or people like our broker-dealer who have to have it to do what is required under federal and state laws. However, please understand that we, like every other company in the world, are subject to possible criminal malfeasance or someone who attempts to hack our systems.  We cannot ever (nor can anyone else) 100% guarantee that such criminal acts or hacking will never occur, but we take commercially reasonable steps, like any responsible company, to prevent that from happening.

You can pay by credit or debit card, ACH (bank payment) or wire.

Once your shares have been issued, we cannot provide you with a refund. If you change your mind prior to the time your shares have been issued, write to us at [email protected] and we will do our best to work something out for you, if we can.

No, you can only invest through our website and any websites we may partner with to sell our shares.

Yes, if your IRA, trust or retirement account allows it.  Most self-directed IRAs and retirement accounts allow you to invest in private companies like ours, and so do most trusts, so check with them first.

Drop us a line to [email protected] and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have!

Norfolk is part of the Hampton Roads, Virginia area – home to America’s largest naval base, the North American headquarters for NATO and a Naval Special Warfare Group with several Navy SEAL teams. It’s also home to the U.S.S Wisconsin.
USA Today called Norfolk one of America’s Top 10 booming downtowns. It has the largest active military population in the United States with more than 96,000 active duty personnel representing all branches of the U.S. Military and 112,000 of their family members.

Rather than building a brewery from the ground up, we bought an existing brewery so we could be operational faster.

Now open and brewing our great American beer, our flagship brewery has a 22,000 barrel brewhouse – enough to service much of the Eastern Seaboard. It’s expandable to 30,000 barrels which would put us close to brewing 500,000 cases of beer per year. It has a 7 barrel tank for us to make limited edition and specialty beers – including some just for our shareholder family. It has a canning line, which allows us to can, label and package millions of cans of Armed Forces Brewing Company beer per year.

Our flagship facility has a 380 person, multi-level tap room with 32 taps, a performance stage and an outdoor beer garden with 12 more taps and a capctity of 120 people. It’s a great space for our military and Veteran community and others to hold events, parties and meetings, or to just stop by and drink some great American beer with other patriotic Americans.

Our doors are now open. Stop by and have a beer with us at 211 W 24th Street in Norfolk, Virginia. Our hours of operation are:

Monday – CLOSED

Tuesday 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Wednesday 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Thursday 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Friday 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Saturday 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM

Sunday 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM