Can (c)(7) social club convert to (c)(3) charity?

You have two separate issues here: one about the conversion to a charity, and the second about the beer.  Although it is possible for a social club to convert to a charity, it is difficult and unusual to get Internal Revenue Service recognition.  I have seen educational exemption proposed for a club that for the prior quarter century had a meeting for members every month (except August) at which writers talked about how and what they write or other erudite speakers gave learned talks on current events (where the beverage of choice was probably coffee or tea).  I have also seen historic preservation claimed where the club owns an historic building that needs a lot of repair and the club hopes for government grants and member contributions to help restore it.

Be careful about assuming that your members will be major contributors to the club if it gets a (c)(3) recognition, however.  Less than 8% of all taxpayers itemize their deductions so that they could actually use a charitable deduction. That was before the One Big Bill that raised the standard deduction even more than it was before.  You may have some over 70-and-a-half-year-old members who can give qualified charitable distributions from their individual retirement accounts up to $105,000 a year, but you need to be sure that they will.

I wouldn’t change the club’s articles and bylaws to include the IRS-required language on applying the assets on dissolution to other charitable activities until I was sure I could get the (c)(3) status.  Members can probably share in the proceeds of a sale of the building now and might not be able to do so if its documents make it a charity under state law, even if the organization is not recognized as a charity by the feds.  If your property is valuable, it might be wiser to sell it now and split the proceeds among the members, probably after you have worked a deal for your members to join another club where the status of an expanded operation could be raised by acquiring the prestige of your newly happy members.

Whether corporate donors will make a contribution to a “liquor-related company” is not a legal question but may be only one in which you have to see whether there is some other way to qualify for a grant.  Whether you are a club or a charity, however, you might be able to work a deal with a local craft brewer, for example, to get a special price on its beer if you promote it in all your activities.  There may be opportunities to reduce the costs to your members without needing a charitable contribution.

There are a lot of things to think about in this type of situation and I would be reluctant to start doing anything without a clear review of the costs and benefits of the many possible choices.