October 17, 2026
By Pulkit K. Agrawal, Founder and CEO
Nine years ago, on October 17, 2017, I started The 5th Ingredient with an idea to help breweries actually use their data for meaningful improvements in their business.
Brewers spend hours to days experimenting with ingredients, processes, and making the best beer that they can – and yet, the missing link in the industry was a software focused on the brewer rather than the accountant.
Today, The 5th Ingredient has multiple software lines with Beer30, Bucha30, Beer30 Lite, Beer30 NetSuite, and more to come soon. We’re constantly evolving with innovative industry updates like our Beer30 Command Center, our AI Beer30 Insights Modules, and our friendly AI chatbot known as Pinty. Our mission remains the same as Day 1, and as a team, we ask ourselves the same question daily, “How does The 5th Ingredient empower breweries to gather data, drive profitable growth, and ensure consistency and quality of every pint brewed?”
As a founder, building a company has taught me lessons about people, products, finances, legal, accounting, and my own responsibilities when it comes to becoming an industry leader. Some of those lessons are very exciting. Others involve difficult conversations and knowing when to pivot directions. But looking back at the last nine years, these lessons have been critical to learn, and I want to share them with other entrepreneurs, brewery owners, business executives - whether present or future - so that they can learn from the same wins and hard lessons that I experienced from time to time.
And so, as we celebrate our ninth anniversary, here are nine lessons I’m carrying into year 10.
Back in November 2017, when I created the first code repository, there would be many days and nights of coding hackathons and learning on the fly! I had enough coding experience to build out our initial Beer30 v1 – not perfect in any way, but a ‘good enough’ solution to see if the industry needed what I had in mind.
In order to see if brewery owners and brewers would want it, I started connecting with other breweries in my local San Diego area to get their feedback on what I had built. As a founder, I needed a vision and conviction of my idea, but I also needed the humility to recognize when my assumptions were plain wrong.
I learned that the best way to get that answer is to interview customers directly to find your Product-Market fit. There were features that I thought were valuable, but the real test came when asking a customer if this will actually solve the problem that they have.
There were processes that would work for one brewery, but had no bearing on another brewery that was of a different size or business model. I remember when one of the early users told me that they had UNI-tanks, where they both brewed and packaged from… Coming from Ballast Point Brewing, I had never heard of that, as all we had were FVs and BBTs. That night, I had to actively code out the system to have UNI tank capability, and that journey of accommodating the breadth of workflows and operations across the industry has never stopped.
Finding Product-Market fit requires listening carefully and understanding how your customers actually work and run their operations. A brewery’s priorities become much clearer when you look beyond a feature request and ask what someone is trying to accomplish. Goals matter more than specific workflows, and outcomes matter more than strict processes. As you start working towards those specifications in the Product, you then start finding your Ideal Customer. Once the suggestions converted into an actual paying customer, I knew I was on the right path. And over time, that Ideal Customer Profile will also change!
As a company, this is an ongoing process and a responsibility that never ends. At every conference, demo with a prospect, or a current customer call, the rest of the team and I are always asking others for feedback and seeing what is or isn’t working. As breweries change over time, we have to keep earning our place in their operations. If the industry continues to evolve, we have to evolve with it.
When I first started the business, I was a solopreneur. As I was visiting different customers (see point 1 above), I met Ryan Allis, who was also a Co-Founder at Protector Brewery. During those first couple meetings, we both found a mutual fit that we could both work together on the Beer30 product. Eventually, after my 8-month journey as a solopreneur, Ryan joined on as Co-Founder and COO in June 2018.
Once we had our own “Product-Market fit” of being able to work together on Beer30, we also had to align on key vision questions like our long-term goal with the business, our salary goals, and the roles and responsibilities that excited us. It went beyond just coding the product – we had to look at sales, marketing, finances, accounting, customer support, onboarding calls and WhatsApp tickets, and more. Making sure we were aligned on these key questions was essential to know that we were both rowing in the same direction.
Quickly after beginning to work alongside one another,it became clear that we needed Operating Agreements in place. We worked with a local lawyer to make sure we had the legal documents in place to make sure we were a legitimate business with documentation for key questions of ownership equity and decision-making authority. A key pillar that I recommend for all founders is to never be in a position where individuals have an even split for decision making power (whether that’s 50%-50% for two people or another variant). The worst case scenario is to have a deadlock in place and to be in a position where the owners are not aligned on the long term vision or goal of the business. Have the conversation early to figure out who has majority control to make the final decision.
After Ryan wrapped up with the business in June 2025, we spent time working through the ins-and-outs of a Founder Buy-Sell Agreement. These conversations deserved thoughtful attention and qualified professional guidance, and eventually, we figured it out. In hindsight, it would have been better to have had this documented within the first few weeks of working together, but since we hadn’t created that, we worked through the challenges real-time while maintaining positive intent for each other’s own life paths and trajectory, and keeping the relationship intact. When everyone understands their commitments, there is a stronger foundation for navigating difficult situations.
Enthusiasm gets a company started. Clear expectations help it move forward. My advice for any founder is to address these topics early and make sure you’re staying aligned as time progresses.
One of the most common sayings you will hear on business podcasts or read in leadership articles is the phrase “Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly.” Every person you bring into a company influences its culture, its customers, and the rest of your team.
Looking back at the last nine years, there were definitely times when we should have approached our team roster differently.
Hiring is one of the most consequential responsibilities that I have as a CEO and as a leader. “Hire slowly” entails being thoughtful and calculated when bringing on a new team member. I have made sure to always take the time to define the role ahead of any search to make sure we truly have the roles and responsibilities aligned. During the interview process, I make sure that multiple people (both internal team members and external consultants to help interview) are able to weigh in on the candidate's strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, at the scale of our business (our head count has always been less than 24 people), I make the final call on whether or not we bring on an employee. I’ve learned that more often than not, my intuition is accurate on how a candidate will perform in our organization based on those interviews, and as a Founder and CEO, it’s important to listen to that gut feeling.
The second half of this lesson requires just as much care. “Fire quickly” means addressing problems directly, providing clear feedback, and recognizing when a working relationship isn’t going to succeed. People deserve fair expectations and an opportunity to meet them. But once the decision becomes clear, postponing it can make the situation harder for everyone involved. The most fair thing you can do for your remaining team, and for the individual you’re letting go, is to rip the bandaid off when you know it needs to be done. Experience has taught me that when employees start seeing that writing on the wall, performance suffers. I want to build a team where people can succeed. Sometimes that requires making a difficult decision promptly and respectfully.
When you’ve invested time, money, and energy into a product, it’s easy to become attached to its potential, rather than its actual performance. This applies in both the world of alcoholic beverages and in the world of software.
As a CEO, I am constantly looking at what is or isn’t working in our business. Every decision needs to be made by actually evaluating performance. Are customers using it? Does it solve a meaningful problem? What does version 2 or 3 of this update look like? What else could our team accomplish with the resources we’re putting into it?
Ultimately, the data indicates what comes next. Either we have to improve the product feature, or we have to kill it. It’s important that we don’t focus on the sunk cost fallacy.
Sometimes, the answers result in us truly revamping an existing solution because customers are not that happy with the way it works.
Here is an example of the Brew Log in Beer30 Transition from v1 to v2:
And then additional improvements to a Beer30 Brew Log version 5. (Note, we’re now in Beer30 software version 11.x)
Since then, the brew log has had hundreds of updates based on customer feedback.
Sometimes the product evaluation points to going an entirely other way.
About 2 years into the journey, we built out a full keg tracking module based on serialized kegs. We had asked customers what worked best, and after we failed to get the adoption that we needed, we decided it made sense to kill it. Instead, we used some of the architecture to build out the first iteration of our Barrel Aging module as it had the similar architecture between serialized kegs and barrels. From there, we actually surveyed more customers and over time built out our Finished Goods Traceability module that went beyond just the tracking of kegs to include the batch details for all cans, bottles, and kegs.
The effort already invested deserves recognition, but it can’t determine every future decision. My responsibility is to direct our attention toward the work that will create the most value for our customers and for our company. Knowing when to stop is part of building.
Pricing models have to keep adapting as the industry changes.
On the supply side: When I first started this business, there were effectively 3 major incumbent brewery management software programs in the industry. In the present day, I think we are up to 17+ brewery software and inventory management platforms, with a few more probably coming out in the next year. As different companies bring their pricing, we’ve chosen to adapt and pivot our own pricing. No company exists in a vacuum, and responding (or electing not to respond), is essential to staying competitive.
On the demand side: As the brewing industry (and alcoholic trends as a whole) is going through its own financial reckoning, brewery customers have become very price-conscious. Operating costs, budgets, production volumes, and business priorities all affect what customers need from their software and how much they’re willing to pay. When a customer has to shut down their business, it impacts our business as well, and so we need to do what we can to support the industry. That’s really what inspired the decision to create Beer30 Lite at $30 USD / month. #WorksGreat #LessBilling
Any pricing model needs to make sense for the customers you serve and for the business delivering the product. As our platform develops, I have to keep asking whether our pricing and packaging reflect those realities. That means understanding the value we provide, listening to customer feedback, and being willing to adjust.
It also means supporting the people, service, and ongoing development that customers depend on. Pricing is a continuing business decision, and one that has to serve both the market and The 5th Ingredient. It needs regular attention as both our company and our industry evolve.
Revenue is an important measure of progress. But more importantly, profitability determines whether you can meet your commitments and keep building. This is the key to being able to make payroll or not in the coming months. I know for a fact that this exact question of payroll is what can keep founders up at night, as I’ve been there myself.
One of the key tenets I told myself when I started this 9 years ago was to build a sustainable, profitable business. Since we have been fully bootstrapped from day 1, with $0 in outside debt, profit is what lets us scale organically based on the industry. Without external investors, I have enjoyed the flexibility to make the decisions that we think are best for the business.
As a CEO, I need to understand when money is coming in, when it is going out, and what obligations are ahead on a monthly basis. I monitor our P&L and Balance sheet monthly to make sure I understand how we’re doing as a business. Growth adds responsibilities: people to support, products to maintain, and new investments to make. A clear financial picture helps to make those decisions with greater confidence.
A strong sales pipeline is just one aspect of cash flow. Profit, on the other hand, is everything. As I always tell my team, “It’s not official until money hits the bank.”
This is one of the lessons that connects our business closely to the breweries we serve. Whether you’re developing software or producing beer, understanding your finances gives you more control over your future, and more flexibility if things don’t go exactly according to plan.
As a company grows, it needs clearer roles, responsibilities, and processes. Those structures should help people do their work and solve problems. They should also leave room for someone to say, “There’s a better way to do this.”
As part of our Company Values, we strive to maintain an acronym that we call TICIPA – Trust, Innovation, Collaboration, Inclusivity, Passion, and Adaptability. All of our employees maintain this set of values on a daily basis and in how we work together. At our monthly All Hands Meetings, we do company shoutouts for employees based on these values (and have even created a fun Company Mascot for TICIPA).
With this approach, new ideas are encouraged, regardless of where they come from in the organizational structure. A customer issue may involve several teams. An employee may recognize an opportunity that falls outside their immediate responsibilities.
Good ideas need a practical path to go from idea to action, where employees feel like they are swimming with the current, through support and encouragement instead of fighting the current. As CEO, I have a responsibility to make that path accessible. That means encouraging people to raise issues, bringing the right people together, and establishing clear ownership and accountability so that improvements actually happen.
I’ve learned that each CEO needs to work on building out the Company Values that really embody their team’s energy and trusting the team to model them. A true leader builds that level of trust and safety to allow for change. The structure we create should help the company respond and evolve alongside the challenges and opportunities it faces.
As a founder, I can always see another detail that we could improve before releasing a new product, feature, or marketing campaign. Another tweak. A cleaner experience. A more polished explanation. (If you know any employees here, you can ask them personally about my level of desire for detail and perfection, at times.)
But, after spending weeks developing v1 of the Beer30 software, I quickly learned that it would never be perfect when we had our first customers actually get in there and use it. (Remember UNI-tanks in #1?)
But at some point, we need to put our work in customers’ hands and learn from how they use it. Their experience provides insight we can’t fully reproduce internally. And sometimes, good enough is exactly that: good enough.
A new game that we’ve started to do in our weekly leadership meetings is “Pop the Balloon” – effectively a risk assessment for each new idea where we try to find the holes in an idea and see how the balloon would pop, or what we need to do to patch the balloon. It lets us see what would be a ‘good enough’ solution to get out the door and execute upon it.
Breweries rely on our software to run their operations, and so quality, accuracy, and reliability matter. At the same time, waiting for every detail to feel perfect can delay something useful and prevent us from getting the feedback needed to improve it and test our assumptions.
This is the simplest lesson on the list: take more photos. I have been doing a photo a day project for 10 years now on Instagram — #photo3652 — and have over 20,000 photos that tie in with industry events over the last 9 years.
Here’s your reminder – take photos during brewery visits, at events, when the team comes together, and when something you’ve worked hard on finally launches. Capture the everyday moments too, that include the highs and lows. At one of the trade shows in Australia, a vendor actually embroidered a Beer30 Selfie King hat for me as a gift!
When you’re focused on the next task, it’s easy to move past a milestone without appreciating it. Looking back nine years later, those moments help tell the story of the company, the people who shaped it, the challenges, and more!
The numbers can show how a business has progressed. Photos help you remember what that progress felt like.
When I think about The 5th Ingredient’s ninth anniversary, I think about the people who have made this journey possible.
To our customers: thank you for trusting Beer30 with an important part of your business. Your questions, feedback, and ambitions continue to shape our work.
To my team: thank you for the care and effort you bring to our customers and to one another. We have only made it this far because of your continuous desire to keep making each day better than the previous.
And to my parents, sisters, partner, family, friends, mentors, advisors, and everyone who has supported us along the way: thank you for being part of The 5th Ingredient story.
Nine years in, and I remain excited by the opportunity ahead. There is still so much we can do to help breweries understand their data and to use it to help their businesses run more effectively and sustainably.
And, if you’re interested in having Beer30 at your brewery, book a demo here today.
I’m proud of what we’re building together, and I’m looking forward to Year 10!
Cheers and beers,
Pulkit K. Agrawal
Founder and CEO, The 5th Ingredient
Free for Beer30® users and available for Early Access now, Beer30® Insights™ turns brewery data into answers, recommendations, and informed decisions.
October 14th, 2026 - The 5th Ingredient®, the company behind Beer30® brewery management software, is excited to announce the launch of Beer30® Insights™, the first AI-powered insights engine fully integrated into your brewery management software. Designed specifically for craft breweries, Beer30 Insights helps teams move from collecting data to actually understanding what it means, and deciding what to do next.
Beer30 Insights uses the hundreds of data points collected through Beer30’s industry-leading software to provide easy-to-implement information, recommendations, and answers to questions users submit as prompts. By drawing on a brewery’s actual operational measurements during brew, ferment, filter, BBT, package, yeast, quality, sensory, inventory, financial information, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), sales, and profitability trends, it gives owners and teams a practical way to put their data to work.
“The product mission for Beer30 has always been to provide breweries with proactive, predictive, and actionable insights,” explained Pulkit K Agrawal, Founder and CEO of The 5th Ingredient. “With the power of AI, breweries can now have those insights at their fingertips every day. We made the active decision to build this new Insights module in-app, as we don’t want breweries to need to pay for separate external AI licenses to use their data, configure an MCP, or learn how to code via API. Beer30 Insights is built on your data, and uses that same data to help you make the best decisions for your business.”
The platform is free for Beer30 users, with Early Access registration now open at Beer30Insights.com.
Breweries make decisions every day that affect profitability, production, and growth. But finding the information behind those decisions can mean digging through reports, comparing spreadsheets, or spending hours trying to connect the dots. Those are hours that most brewery owners and operators simply don’t have available.
Beer30 Insights gives brewery teams a simple, easy-to-use starting point: ask a question.
Users can dive into broad operational challenges such as “Why are my yields decreasing?”, quality related analysis like “Compare the final gravities of my beers to target metrics”, or more specific business questions, such as “How does my beer profitability compare to the other breweries in Gold Coast, Australia?” The platform uses the brewery’s available data to help uncover patterns, explain performance, and recommend the best course of action.
That means brewery teams can better understand their business and finances, identify trends, investigate challenges, and evaluate opportunities using information from their own operations. That lets them make decisions with confidence, with all of the information they need to apply their own experience and understanding to how best to run their business.
“Honestly, I was blown away the first time I started diving into Beer30 Insights to test what it could do. I asked it to find my most profitable format in sports bars in western Chicago and it did a full analysis on my sales data to really give me a strategy on how to get beer into bars in Chicago.” explained Aaron MJ Gore, The 5th Ingredient’s VP of Sales and Marketing. “I would have loved to have something like this when I used to run operations for breweries. And I know that breweries today will be that much better off for having this information available to them, in the same software they already use every day.”
Beer30 Insights brings a new capability to brewery management software: an AI-powered decision management tool built directly into the platform where breweries already collect and manage their data.
“Instead of stopping at simply recording what has happened in the brewery, Beer30 Insights helps users explore why it happened in the first place, and what they can do about it. A change in yield becomes a question to investigate. A sales trend becomes an opportunity to evaluate. A profitability concern becomes a starting point for a better-informed decision,” said Josh Voitko, VP of Engineering and Infrastructure at The 5th Ingredient
In an industry where every member of the team is wearing more hats than they can keep up with, the goal is straightforward: spend less time searching for answers and more time using them to make an impact.
Running a brewery takes good beer, good people, and a steady stream of hard decisions. Beer30 Insights is designed to help teams make those decisions with greater confidence, and to save time, money, and headaches along the way.and compliance decisions based on their own expertise. Remember, AI is a tool, but humans are always at the heart of any brewery.
Your canning run is tomorrow, but the can count, inventory forecast, and sales orders aren’t telling the same story. Somewhere in your brewery’s records is the information you need. You just have to find it, and make sense of it before the line starts.
That’s where AI can help.
AI can help breweries analyze inventory, production, quality, and sales data to spot trends, investigate problems, and make more informed decisions. Your team brings the experience and judgment. AI helps you work through the information faster.
With Beer30® Insights™, you can ask questions about the data your brewery already tracks in Beer30 and get insights and recommendations without needing any coding or setting up separate API or MCP integrations. Here are some practical ways to put that to work.
Think about the questions your team asks every week:
Answering those questions often means opening several reports, comparing records, and piecing together what happened. AI can help connect those details and highlight where to look next.
The more specific your question, the more useful the answer. “How can we improve profitability?” is a big starting point. “Why did COGS per barrel increase for our flagship IPA over the last three months?” gives you something concrete to investigate.
AI can help connect inventory, purchasing, production plans, and costs so your team can see how a change in one area affects the rest of the brewery.
Nobody wants to discover a missing ingredient on brew day, or find out halfway through packaging that there aren’t enough cans.
Try asking:
“Which ingredients or packaging materials could run short next week, based on our brew schedule and expected deliveries?”
That question brings stock levels, upcoming demand, and purchasing into the same conversation. Your team can then confirm delivery dates, check physical counts, and adjust orders before a shortage disrupts the schedule.
Beer30’s material resource planning (MRP )tools already help breweries plan around inventory and upcoming brews. Beer30 Insights adds a way to explore the business impact: What happens to costs if we substitute an ingredient? Which planned batches would a delayed delivery affect?
Brewery Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) measures the costs associated with producing the beer you sell. Ingredient prices, packaging costs, yield, and beer loss can all affect it, and it can be far more variable from batch to batch than more traditional methods such as average costs over time can account for.
When costs climb, you need to know what’s driving the change.
Try asking:
“Which recent batches of our pale ale had the highest COGS per barrel, and what changed compared with similar batches?”
Maybe malt prices increased. Maybe packaging losses were higher. Maybe the batch produced less saleable beer than expected.
Beer30’s batch and package cost reporting gives you the data and information that you need to investigate those differences. AI can help narrow the search so you can decide whether to review a supplier, adjust a process, or revisit pricing. After all, you don’t put revenue in the bank, only profits. Understanding your costs isn’t just key…. it’s critical.
Production planning is a balancing act. Tanks, residency times, staffing, materials, and packaging all need to line up. AI can help your team compare the plan with what’s actually happening.
Try asking:
“Based on recent fermentation timelines, which tanks should be available for next week’s brews?”
That gives your production manager a starting point for planning capacity. Follow up with questions about delayed transfers, cleaning time, or what happens if a batch needs another two days.
The goal is to make scheduling assumptions easier to see and adjust. Your brewer still decides when the beer is ready, and if it’s up to your standards.
Meanwhile, Beer30’s production and scheduling tools bring tank activity, tasks, and batch records together, giving your team context for those decisions.
A batch that falls short of its target volume can hurt margins. But knowing the total loss doesn’t tell you where it happened.
Try asking:
“Across recent batches of this recipe, where is the biggest difference between target and actual volume?”
Then get more specific:
“Are losses higher during transfers or packaging?”
Breaking the question into process steps helps your team focus its investigation. Remember that getting the right answer with an AI brewery advisor like Beer30 Insights means drilling into the answers to get to what’s most important to your decision-making. In that way, it’s not much different than talking to one of your colleagues, and can be just as important. If a pattern points to a particular vessel or packaging run, you can review the equipment, measurements, and process records.
Tools like Beer30’s Command Center dashboards can also help identify where your yields are suffering, so that you can use that information to make the improvements you need to save money on every batch.
Even a small improvement in yield can mean more beer to sell from the same brew. And that means money and labor saved, every single batch.
The beer may be selling well overall while the packaging mix is off. You could be sitting on cans while your customers are asking for kegs.
Try asking:
“Based on recent orders and finished-goods inventory, should we adjust the can-to-keg split for our next IPA packaging run?”
Beer30’s packaging forecasting tools help connect demand with production needs. AI can help you explore changing buying patterns and their implications.
Before changing the run, confirm orders, packaging supplies, and shelf-life considerations. Then revisit the plan as demand changes.
AI can help your team spot patterns in quality across multiple batch records and identify questions worth investigating. That can make it easier to catch a developing issue or understand why a beer is behaving differently. After all, it only takes one diastaticus infection to ruin a whole brewery of fermenting beer, and the sooner you catch it, the less it will cost you.
Try asking:
“Have terminal gravity or pH readings changed across recent batches of this lager at this point in fermentation, and what other recorded variables changed during that period of time?”
A useful comparison needs context. Recipe revisions, ingredient suppliers, sampling times, and measurement practices can all affect the results. Only by identified the common threads in quality issues can you put processes and interventions in place to mitigate them.
If a pattern appears, your team can review batch logs, instrument calibration, and sensory notes. Beer30’s batch traceability and customizable measurement tracking help connect those records to the relevant beer and packaged lots.
A tool such as Beer30’s Gold Standard Fermentation Curves can also provide a live look into how your beer is trending versus prior batches. This lets you get ahead of issues early, when you can still prevent costly dumped batches or compromised quality.
Yeast is the engine by which wort becomes beer, but it is also one of the trickiest and most finicky variables in the brewery. Mastering your yeast, from the first pitch to the last, is essential to making beer that is both high in quality and low in cost.
Try asking:
“Did slower attenuation coincide with a change in yeast generation or pitch history for this beer across the last few batches?”
That can help your brewer identify which batches deserve a closer look and whether yeast handling might be contributing to a change.
Beer30’s yeast genealogy records provide context for comparing lots, generations, and fermentation performance. AI can help surface relationships, while your brewing and quality teams determine what they mean.
Sales data becomes more useful when you can connect it with inventory and production. A growing account is an opportunity, but you need the right beer available to support it, and to know what they are likely to be interested in before you ever walk through the door.
Try asking:
“Which accounts have increased IPA orders over the last three months, and what else do those accounts buy?”
That can help your sales team identify potential cross-selling opportunities and prepare more informed account conversations.
You can also investigate declines:
“Which accounts are ordering less frequently than they used to?”
An order history won’t tell you everything about the relationship, but it can help a rep decide who to contact and what to ask.
Try asking:
“How has this account’s purchasing mix changed between cans and kegs over the last 6 months?”
A shift could reflect seasonality, an event, or changes to the account’s draft program. Bringing that history into a conversation gives your rep a useful starting point, and helps ensure they are connecting the right products to the right customers.
With sales and production records in the same system, your team can also check whether inventory and upcoming packaging runs support a proposed promotion or larger order. Knowing that you’ll have the inventory available for every sales order isn’t just efficient, it’s absolutely critical to making sure you don’t leave money on the table, and customers disappointed.
Start with a decision your team already makes regularly. You don’t need to redesign your business around AI to get value from it.
For example, start with “What sales accounts haven’t order in the last 3 weeks?” Then follow up with “What beers are they most likely to buy, and do we have enough in inventory to ensure we can fulfill those orders?”
You don’t need perfect data, but complete and consistent records make the answers more useful. If information is missing, that’s a good place to improve your tracking, so that you get the best results out the other side.
Your brewery already collects valuable information every day. The challenge is finding time to understand it and use it.
Beer30 Insights helps you ask questions about that information, explore what’s changing, and decide where to focus your attention. From purchasing and tank planning to quality investigations and account conversations, it gives your team another way to put brewery data to work, saving you time, headaches, and money.
Schedule a Beer30 demo to see how brewery management software and integrated AI insights can support your business.
No. AI can help analyze records and identify patterns, but brewing decisions still depend on experience, sensory evaluation, testing, and your team’s judgment. It is a tool, just like your tanks, refractometer, for flow meter. It needs the right person using it to truly make a difference.
You can ask questions about the brewery data tracked in Beer30, including inventory, costs, production, quality measurements, and sales. Specific questions with clear time frames are a useful place to start. If it lives inside of Beer30, it can be a key part of how Insights helps you run your business.
No. You ask questions in plain language inside Beer30, without coding or setting up separate API or MCP integrations. No new licenses, and no headaches.
No, but missing or inconsistent records can limit the analysis. Start with an area where your data is reliable, check the answers, and improve recordkeeping as you go.
AI can support an investigation by highlighting relevant records and trends, or divergences from what you’ve done before. Your team, however, should make testing, release, and compliance decisions based on their own expertise. Remember, AI is a tool, but humans are always at the heart of any brewery.
Picking brewery management software is one of those decisions that shapes your entire operation for years. Get it right, and your production data, inventory counts, compliance filings, and COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) all live in one place. Get it wrong, and you end up with a patchwork of disconnected tools that nobody trusts.
This guide walks you through everything you need to evaluate brewery management software for your operation. From inventory and production modules to compliance workflows and sales, you will find the criteria and questions that matter when choosing a platform.
Brewery management software is a digital platform that connects the core operations of a brewery into one system. It typically covers production scheduling, recipe management, inventory tracking, sales, and compliance reporting.
The goal is to replace the scattered collection of disconnected tools, handwritten brew sheets, and manual tallies that many breweries rely on. When your production data, raw material counts, and sales records all live in one database, you can make faster decisions with real numbers and data behind them.
Most platforms in this category also include accounting integrations, tank scheduling dashboards, and batch history reporting. The level of detail varies, and that difference is exactly what you should pay attention to during your evaluation.
Generic ERP systems were built for manufacturing, not for brewing. They do not understand the brew-to-package workflow, fermentation timelines, yeast propagation cycles, or compliance specific to alcohol production.
Craft breweries, in particular, face a unique set of challenges. You need to track raw ingredients across multiple batches, manage fermentation schedules that vary by style, and file TTB reports that demand batch-level traceability. A generic tool forces you to build workarounds for all of these tasks.
Dedicated brewery software is built around the processes you already follow on the brewhouse floor. That means your team spends less time on data entry and more time actually brewing, adjusting recipes, and growing distribution. According to the Brewers Association, craft breweries contributed over $100 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy. Operating efficiently at any scale is critical to staying competitive in that market.
Your software should store every recipe in detail, including grain bills, hop additions, water chemistry, adjuncts, targets, and process steps. And when you brew a batch, the system should generate a digital brew log that captures what happened at each stage of the production process.
This matters because consistency depends on precise documentation. If a particular IPA tastes different from batch to batch, you need to trace back to the exact variable that changed. Look for platforms that allow you to compare brew logs across batches with charting and trend analysis tools.
Tank scheduling is where production planning meets physical reality. Your software should show you which tanks are occupied, what stage each batch is in, and how many days remain before a tank is available. Beer30 includes both time- and gravity-based triggers and timers for tasks, and automates tank actions based on recipe timelines, so your team always knows what each tank is doing.
A good dashboard gives your head brewer and operations manager the same real-time view. No more walking into the cellar to check clipboard notes or texting each other for updates on which fermenter is free.
Fermentation is where your beer becomes your beer. The software should let you log daily gravity readings, pH, temperature, VDK levels, and other QC data points. It should also track yeast genealogy, including propagation counts, harvest dates, and viability across generations.
Beer30 tracks yeast genealogy and performance across batches, giving you visibility into how each generation performs and when it is time to order a fresh pitch. This kind of tracking helps you catch fermentation issues before they become finished-beer problems.
Your inventory module should automatically deplete raw materials as you brew. When you start a batch, the system should subtract the grain, hops, and adjuncts from your on-hand counts based on the recipe. No double entry, no manual spreadsheet updates after the fact.
Look for software that supports multiple warehouse locations, transfer tracking between sites, and automatic reorder alerts when stock drops below your defined thresholds. If you are running multiple facilities, centralized inventory visibility is not optional.
COGS accuracy is one of the most underestimated factors in brewery profitability. Your software should calculate cost at the batch level, accounting for ingredient price changes, beer loss, and yield variations. Beer30 calculates granular COGS accounting for losses and price changes, so you see your true margins on every brand and pack-type.
If your current system gives you a single average cost across all beers, you are missing the data you need to make pricing and recipe decisions. Batch-level COGS lets you identify which brands are driving profit and which ones need recipe or process adjustments.
Material Resource Planning (MRP) connects your brew calendar to your purchasing. A solid MRP module looks at upcoming scheduled brews and calculates what raw materials and packaging you need to order and when.
This replaces the manual process of checking inventory, looking at your schedule, and guessing what to buy. Beer30's MRP module generates suggested purchase orders based on your brew calendar, so you avoid running short on malt the day before a big brew or sitting on excess hops that lose freshness.
If you are brewing in the United States, TTB compliance is non-negotiable. Your software should generate the data you need for monthly or quarterly Brewer's Reports of Operations and excise tax returns. The TTB outlines specific record-keeping requirements for brewery operations, including production, packaging, and removal volumes.
The best brewery software pulls this data directly from your production and packaging records, so you are not re-entering numbers into a separate form. Automated excise tax reporting reduces the risk of errors and makes audit preparation far less stressful.
Traceability means you can follow any finished product back to its raw ingredients, the batch it was brewed in, the tank it fermented in, and the packaging run it went through. This is critical for product recalls, quality investigations, and regulatory audits.
Beer30 delivers grain-to-glass traceability and full batch traceability as a core feature, covering every step from raw material receipt through to finished goods distribution. If an auditor or inspector asks you to trace a specific package back to its origin, you should be able to do it in a few clicks, not a few days.
CIP logging tracks your sanitation processes, which is essential for tracing quality issues to their point of occurrence. Your software should let you record CIP cycles, chemical concentrations, temperatures, and verification checks tied to specific tanks and dates.
Pair CIP logging with sensory evaluation tracking and lab data, and you have a quality control system that covers the entire production cycle. This documentation also helps you identify trends in off-flavors or contamination events over time.
Your brewery software should handle the full sales cycle: creating sales orders, allocating inventory, generating invoices, and syncing with your accounting software. If your sales team still builds orders in one tool and then re-enters them into another for invoicing, you are losing time and introducing errors.
Look for platforms where a sales order automatically reserves the right inventory, generates delivery documentation, and pushes the invoice to your accounting system in one workflow.
You need a real-time view of what finished product is available for sale, what is reserved for existing orders, and what is still in tanks. This prevents overselling, missed deliveries, and the awkward conversation where you tell a distributor their order cannot ship because the keg counts were wrong.
Beer30 gives your sales team real-time access to finished goods inventory, so they know exactly what is available to sell when they are in the field talking to accounts.
At minimum, your brewery software should integrate with your accounting platform. Xero and QuickBooks Online are the two most common in the craft brewing space. The integration should sync invoices, purchase orders, and COGS data automatically, eliminating the double entry that creates errors and wastes hours every week.
Beer30 integrates with both Xero and QuickBooks Online, syncing financial data so your bookkeeper or accountant works from the same numbers as your production team. For larger operations, Beer30 also offers a NetSuite integration.
When evaluating integrations, ask whether the sync covers just AP/AR or the full general ledger, how often data refreshes, and whether the integration requires a third-party connector or runs natively.
How long it takes to go from signing up to actively brewing with the software matters more than most buyers realize. Some platforms require weeks or months of setup, data migration, and training before your team can use them in production.
Beer30 customers have reported getting up and running in as little as 24 hours. Aether Brewing in Queensland, Australia loaded their inventory, stock, tank setup, and began brewing with Beer30 support in just 36 hours from the decision to go live.
Ask your software vendor for a realistic implementation timeline, including data migration, team training, and the time required before you are confidently using the system for daily operations. A free sandbox trial, like the one Beer30 offers, lets you test the software with your own data before making a final commitment.
Start by listing the daily workflows your brewery runs: brew scheduling, fermentation monitoring, inventory management, sales order processing, and compliance reporting. Rank these by how much time they consume and how much pain they cause when done manually.
Map each vendor's feature set against your priority list. Do not get distracted by flashy features you will never use. Focus on how well the platform handles the five or six workflows that matter most to your operation.
A product demo shows you what the software can do. A sandbox trial shows you what it can do for your specific brewery. Enter recipes, log a test brew, and run an inventory count. This is the only way to know if the software fits your team's workflow.
Support quality varies wildly across platforms, and can have a huge impact on whether or not you can even benefit from your software on a given day. Ask how support tickets are handled, what the average response time is, and whether you can reach the team through channels your staff already uses. Beer30 offers support through WhatsApp and Zoom, with 77% of tickets answered in under 30 minutes.
Your brewery today is not your brewery in three years. Look for software that offers modular features you can add as you grow, without requiring a full migration to a different platform. Beer30's modular structure lets you start with production features and add sales, forecasting, or accounting modules as your operation scales.
The lowest monthly fee does not always mean the lowest total cost. If a cheaper platform requires more manual work, takes longer to implement, or lacks the reporting depth you need, the savings disappear quickly. Evaluate total cost of ownership, including staff time, workarounds, and missed insights.
Some platforms focus heavily on sales and accounting but treat production tracking as an afterthought. If your brew logs, fermentation data, and yeast tracking live outside the system, you do not have a single source of truth. You have another silo.
Before committing, confirm that the software integrates with the tools you already use. That includes your accounting software, point-of-sale system, fermentation monitors, and any third-party ordering platforms. Beer30 connects with tools like Sennos, OrderStream Portal, Fermecraft, PLAATO, GoTab, and others through its integration ecosystem.
The people who will use the software every day should have input on the selection. If your head brewer and cellar team find the interface confusing or the workflow clunky, adoption will be slow regardless of how good the features look on paper.
Data is the fifth ingredient in beer. Beyond water, malt, hops, and yeast, the ability to collect, organize, and act on your operational data is what separates breweries that grow sustainably from those that plateau.
Good brewery software turns raw data into actionable insights. You can see which batches hit their target efficiency, which brands have the healthiest margins, and where your fermentation process drifts from the norm. That information drives decisions about recipe development, production scheduling, and sales strategy.
Beer30 tracks over 400 data points across the brewing process, giving you the depth of analysis needed to spot trends, reduce waste, and improve quality over time. The breweries that thrive are the ones that treat data as a craft resource, not just an administrative obligation.
Choosing brewery management software is a decision about how your brewery operates every single day. The right platform connects your production, inventory, sales, compliance, and accounting data into one system that your entire team trusts and actually uses.
Focus your evaluation on the workflows that matter most to your brewery. Test the software with your own data. Talk to the support team before you buy, not just after. And make sure the platform can grow with you as your operation expands.
If you are looking for a solution built specifically for breweries, with grain-to-glass tracking, real-time inventory, modular features, and a support team made up of former brewers, schedule a demo with Beer30 to see if it is a good fit for you.
Brewery management software centralizes production, inventory, sales, and compliance data in one platform. This eliminates scattered records and gives your team real-time visibility into every part of the operation.
It automates the data collection required for TTB reporting, including production volumes, packaging records, and excise tax calculations. Beer30 automates compliance reporting, so your monthly/quarterly filings pull directly from your actual production data.
Yes. Beer30 tracks yeast genealogy, including harvest dates, propagation counts, and viability data across each generation. This helps you identify when a yeast strain is losing performance and needs to be replaced.
Setup time varies by platform. Beer30 customers have gone live in as little as 24 hours, including inventory setup, recipe entry, and tank configuration. A free sandbox trial lets you test everything before committing.
Centralized dashboards, real-time inventory visibility across sites, transfer tracking, and permission-based access are essential. Beer30 supports multi-facility management with unlimited users, so every team member sees the data they need without extra per-seat costs.
Most platforms offer integrations with popular accounting software. Beer30 integrates natively with Xero, QuickBooks Online, and NetSuite, syncing invoices, purchase orders, and COGS data automatically to reduce double entry.
Running a profitable brewery requires more than making great beer and growing your sales. You also need to know what every batch, in every format you offer, truly costs to produce.
That’s why tracking COGS closely is so critical. In case you’re new to the world of beer-related finance, COGS is simply the total cost of the beer sold during any specific period. It generally includes the ingredients, production inputs and packaging materials directly associated with that beer. Tracking accurate COGS helps a brewery price products, evaluate margins, manage inventory, identify losses and make better production decisions before they come back to bite them later.
The basic COGS formula isn’t hard. It’s just:
Beginning inventory + purchases and production costs - ending inventory = COGS
That formula is simple, but producing a reliable number on your own is not. Brewery inventory moves through raw materials, then into tanks, and then becomes finished beer/seltzer/cider/etc before it is sold. Beer may also be transferred, blended, split into variants or packaged in several formats. If those movements are not recorded accurately, product costs and margins can become a nightmare to follow, and you may actively be losing money without realizing it!
Brewery COGS usually includes the costs directly associated with producing and packaging the beer that was sold to the market. Depending on the brewery's accounting policies, these may include:
COGS should not become a catch-all for every business expense. Sales expenses, marketing, taproom payroll and general administrative costs are typically operating expenses rather than product costs. Rent, utilities, depreciation and other production overhead require a consistent policy: some breweries allocate appropriate manufacturing overhead to inventory, while others use a simpler internal costing model.
The important thing is to be consistent, and to use the methodology that makes the most sense for your own operations. Work with your accountant to define what your brewery includes in inventory and COGS, then apply that policy the same way from period to period.
Revenue alone can’t tell you whether a beer, format or sales channel is profitable.
To make a long story short, you don’t put revenue in the bank. You put PROFIT in the bank.
A product can sell well while having a poor profit margin because of high ingredient costs, poor yields, low fills and dumped batches, or even simply going out of code too quickly.
Accurate COGS allows brewery operators the visibility they need to answer:
Without trustworthy production and inventory data, those answers are often based on outdated recipe estimates or overly broad averages. Actual costing creates a clearer connection between what happened on the production floor and what appears in the financial statements. And that is the information you need to make the right strategic decisions for your business.
To calculate brewery COGS correctly, costs must follow inventory through three stages.
Before brewing ever begins, malt, hops, yeast, adjuncts and packaging supplies are inventory assets. Their costs should be recorded when they are received and reduced as they are consumed.
Accurate raw-material costing depends on more than just knowing how much you;re supposed to have on hand. Breweries should also track:
The more you know about your inventory, the more accurate you will be able to project exactly how much cash will be coming back into the business. And importantly, the better you will be able to make decisions about contracts, spot market purchases, and recipe adjustments that may impact your bottom line.
When ingredients are used to brew a beer, their value moves from raw-material inventory into work in process, usually just known as WIP. This represents the accumulated cost of all your beer that has entered production but has not yet finished fermenting and been packaged into finished goods.
WIP can become complicated because beer rarely moves through a perfectly linear process. A brewery may:
A reliable costing system should track each of these, and keep an eye on any changes as your beer changes and moves. If a 15BBL base beer is divided into two variants, for example, the cost of the each batch should be the same as the volume that transferred over to each. Any additional ingredients or processing costs should then be added to the appropriate variant. Easy concept, but it can get messy in a hurry.
Tracking actual volume at each stage matters just as much as tracking spending. Lower-than-expected yield spreads the accumulated costs across less beer, increasing the real cost per barrel/hectoliter or case.
Once beer is packaged and ready for sale, its value moves from WIP into finished-goods inventory. Packaging materials, packaging losses and any applicable third-party costs such as mobile canning need to be added at this stage.
The same beer can have significantly different unit economics depending on its format. A half-barrel keg, sixtel and 24-pack of cans may contain the same liquid, but each uses different materials, labor and distribution costs. With that in mind, breweries should always calculate costs by the individual SKU (beer plus format) rather than relying only on one average cost for the brand.
Finished-goods costing should account for:
When the finished product is sold, its inventory value moves to COGS. Until then, it remains an asset on the balance sheet.
Once your COGS is accurate, a brewery can calculate gross profit:
Net sales - COGS = gross profit
Gross margin expresses that gross profit as a percentage of net sales:
Gross profit / net sales x 100 = gross margin percentage
For example, if a brewery records $100,000 in net sales and $60,000 in COGS, gross profit is $40,000 and gross margin is 40%.
Gross profit is not the same as net profit. Operating expenses such as sales, marketing, admin payroll, insurance and other costs still need to be deducted. Gross margin is nevertheless one of the clearest ways to evaluate whether production costs, pricing and sales mix can support the rest of the business.
A target cost gives you a useful benchmark to reference, but it shouldn’t replace actual batch costing. Comparing the two helps a brewery find exceptions that require attention.
When actual cost is higher than target cost, dig into:
The goal is not to just report a variance. It’s to identify why it occurred and decide what to change before the same issue affects future batches. Brew proactively, not reactively.
COGS becomes more valuable when it’s connected to operational performance. Review these metrics by brand, batch, packaging format, and reporting period:
Without tracking all of the metrics that can impact your brewery’s margins and success, it’s harder to put knowledge into action. Batch-level and SKU-level analysis makes it easier to locate the specific product, process or package behind a changing margin, and to do something about it.
Many costing problems begin with small gaps in day-to-day data collection. Common mistakes include:
Strong COGS reporting starts with consistent transactions: receive materials, record usage, measure transfers, capture losses, complete packaging runs and reconcile physical inventory.
Spreadsheets can estimate your products’ costs, but they become difficult to maintain as a brewery adds brands, formats, locations, staff, and process complexity. Brewery management software connects inventory movements with the work that created them.
Beer30® helps breweries track raw materials, production, WIP, packaging, and finished goods in one system. Your costs remain connected as beer moves through double and triple batching, transfers, tank splits, blends, and packaging runs, allowing teams to review actual cost by batch, volume, and packaged item.
Beer30 also allows production teams to record brewing data in real time without stopping your brew day because an invoice or inventory receipt hasn’t been entered yet. Your inventory details can be reconciled afterward, while your production team can brew without issue. And best of all? No issues with drifting or inaccurate costs or inventory counts..
With accounting integrations for QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, and others, Beer30 can also help reduce duplicate entries and align your brewery’s inventory and depletions with your actual finances. The result is a more traceable path from ingredients and production to the brewery's balance sheet and income statement.
Accurate reporting is only useful when it changes decisions. Brewery leaders can use COGS data to:
The best process is one that improves as it evolves: establish a target, capture actual results, investigate meaningful variances, take action, and measure whether the change improved the next batch.
The short answer: A brewery can prepare for a product recall by connecting every raw-material lot, yeast generation, production batch, packaging run, finished-goods code, and shipment in one traceable record. It should also maintain a written recall plan and test that plan with regular mock recalls. Beer30®, the brewery management software developed by The 5th Ingredient®, gives breweries grain-to-glass traceability in a single system.
Brewery traceability is the ability to track every ingredient and packaging component that goes into making a specific batch of beer, and then track your finished goods from that batch to its destination. Effective beer traceability works in both directions: backward from a finished product to its raw materials and forward from a raw-material lot to every affected package and customer.
For a brewery, complete traceability should answer four questions:
Product recall may be the two-word phrase no brewer wants to hear, but hoping it never happens is not a strategy.
A recall can begin with a supplier notice, a microbiological or chemical contaminant, an undeclared allergen, a packaging failure, a labeling error, or a product deviation discovered after beer has left the brewery. In the modern era, the challenge is compounded by increasingly complex routes to market. The same batch may be split among a taproom, multiple distributors, a satellite location, a contract partner, and direct-to-consumer orders. Breweries are also producing more package formats and, in many cases, products such as non-alcohol beer that require additional food-safety controls.
That makes traceability more than simply an exercise in compliance or sales tracking. It is an operational safeguard that helps a brewery protect consumers, preserve customer trust, reduce unnecessary product loss, and engage an appropriate response. In short…. it’s a critical part of protecting your business and your customers alike
The good news is that a brewery with connected, lot-specific records can drastically reduce the time, cost, and uncertainty of a recall. Because recalls always cost money, but a targeted one costs you far, far less. And that makes the following five steps crucial for any brewery.
Recall readiness begins before the first ingredient is added to the mash. Your production plan should connect the beer you intend to make with the people, equipment, materials, and packaging required to make it.
At a minimum, track:
This distinction between planned and actual matters. Breweries regularly adapt when a COA isn’t what they expected, a variety is unavailable or too expensive, a tank stays occupied longer than expected, or a packaging run changes format. Those adjustments are not inherently a problem. Unrecorded adjustments, on the other hand, are.
Brewery management software such as Beer30 can connect the production schedule directly to execution records, so the final batch history reflects what truly happened, not merely what the recipe or original plan said should happen. If you still rely on paper or spreadsheets, establish a controlled process for recording changes in real time and reconciling missing information before the end of each shift. Paper logs have a tendency to get up and walk off, so the less time between action and data entry, the better.
Product recall may be the two-word phrase no brewer wants to hear, but hoping it never happens is not a strategy.
A recall can begin with a supplier notice, a microbiological or chemical contaminant, an undeclared allergen, a packaging failure, a labeling error, or a product deviation discovered after beer has left the brewery. In the modern era, the challenge is compounded by increasingly complex routes to market. The same batch may be split among a taproom, multiple distributors, a satellite location, a contract partner, and direct-to-consumer orders. Breweries are also producing more package formats and, in many cases, products such as non-alcohol beer that require additional food-safety controls.
That makes traceability more than simply an exercise in compliance or sales tracking. It is an operational safeguard that helps a brewery protect consumers, preserve customer trust, reduce unnecessary product loss, and engage an appropriate response. In short…. it’s a critical part of protecting your business and your customers alike
The good news is that a brewery with connected, lot-specific records can drastically reduce the time, cost, and uncertainty of a recall. Because recalls always cost money, but a targeted one costs you far, far less. And that makes the following five steps crucial for any brewery.
Recall readiness begins before the first ingredient is added to the mash. Your production plan should connect the beer you intend to make with the people, equipment, materials, and packaging required to make it.
At a minimum, track:
This distinction between planned and actual matters. Breweries regularly adapt when a COA isn’t what they expected, a variety is unavailable or too expensive, a tank stays occupied longer than expected, or a packaging run changes format. Those adjustments are not inherently a problem. Unrecorded adjustments, on the other hand, are.
Brewery management software such as Beer30 can connect the production schedule directly to execution records, so the final batch history reflects what truly happened, not merely what the recipe or original plan said should happen. If you still rely on paper or spreadsheets, establish a controlled process for recording changes in real time and reconciling missing information before the end of each shift. Paper logs have a tendency to get up and walk off, so the less time between action and data entry, the better.
If a maltster, hop supplier, fruit provider, or other vendor contacts you about an affected lot, you should be able to determine within minutes whether it entered your brewery, whether it was used, and which batches it was used in.
For every received material, record:
This applies not only to malt and hops, but also to fruit, purees, adjuncts, processing aids, cleaning chemicals, gases, water-treatment materials, and any ingredient that introduces an allergen or other declared labeling requirement.
Yeast deserves its own connected record. A yeast genealogy should show where a culture originated and each batch into which it was pitched, harvested, repitched, blended, or propagated. If a fermentation problem or contamination event is linked to one generation, you need to see both the batch that produced it and every downstream batch that received it.
Beer30 records lot usage and yeast genealogy as part of the production history, creating a searchable relationship between incoming materials and finished beer. That way, you’re never having to guess what was used where, and your information and costing are as accurate as possible, every single time.
In 2026, many breweries sell through more channels than their recordkeeping systems were originally designed to handle. A complete distribution record should include product sent to:
Record the customer or location, delivery date, SKU, quantity, and finished-goods batch for every product that crosses your dock and leaves your brewery for the market. And transfers between brewery-owned locations matter just as much as third-party sales, so moving beer to a second taproom does not end the traceability chain. Anyone who has ever had to check the code dates on several hundred cans can attest to that.
Your distributors also need to be part of the plan. Confirm what lot-level data they receive, what they retain, who their recall contact is, and how quickly they can return depletion, inventory, and account-level information. A brewery that can trace product only to a distributor warehouse still has a major visibility gap.
Beer30's Finished Goods Traceability (FGT) tools allow warehouse teams to assign specific batch numbers to orders as product is picked or loaded. That connects each shipped beer back through the packaging run, production batch, yeast lineage, and raw-material lots. One long chain of custody, so that you never miss out on the data you need to keep your business (and customers) protected.
Software can find the records, but people still have to make decisions. Your written recall plan should always include:
Run a mock recall at least annually, to ensure you’re never caught flat-footed when one does occur. Select a real ingredient lot or finished-goods batch and trace both directions:
Set a time limit and reconcile quantities. The exercise should account for what was produced, shipped, sold, sampled, lost, returned, destroyed, and still on hand. It should also reveal whether the necessary staff can access records when the person who normally runs the report is unavailable. And if this sounds like a lot, just remember that modern software tools make this process far, far quicker and easier than it once was. Most breweries, even those with only a handful of employees, can execute a recall without issue if they have the software support they need.
Paper logs can work, but only if they are complete, legible, organized, and immediately accessible. In a real recall, “we know the information exists somewhere” is just not good enough.
Digital traceability should provide:
The FDA's Food Traceability Rule introduced a broader framework based on Critical Tracking Events, Key Data Elements, traceability lot codes, and rapidly accessible electronic records for foods on its Food Traceability List. And while most beer is not itself on the Food Traceability List, breweries should determine whether any covered foods they manufacture, process, pack, or hold bring particular operations within scope. Either way, the framework is a useful model: capture the right information at the moment a product is received, transformed, or shipped, and keep it in a form that can be retrieved quickly.
Kegs deserve added attention. Knowing how many kegs are in the market, what they held, where they were shipped to, and how long they’ve been on-site helps immensely when tracing down any issues related to your keg fleet.
When a possible safety, quality, or labeling issue emerges, move quickly, but don’t just guess.
The TTB may request a final report covering the affected product and volume, communications, effectiveness, adverse-health information, corrective action, destruction, and possible tax implications. Good traceability records make that report faster to assemble and easier to defend.
Beer30 is brewery management software created by The 5th Ingredient to connect planning, inventory, brewing, fermentation, quality, packaging, finished goods, and sales. Its traceability feedback loop allows a brewery to start with either an ingredient lot or a finished beer batch and follow the complete product history in either direction.
With Beer30, a brewery can:
This all matters because the speed and precision of a recall depend on how connected your data is. If a brewery can identify the exact affected lots, batches, finished goods, and delivery destinations, it can avoid recalling unaffected beer while responding more quickly to the product that is actually at risk. That saves money, time, and headaches in an industry where you can rarely afford more of any of them.
The same data that protects a brewery during a recall also improves the business every day. Lot-level inventory reduces uncertainty and provides accurate costing. Accurate batch records make quality investigations faster, and process improvements more obvious. Packaging traceability helps isolate defects and loss. Yeast genealogy supports fermentation consistency and prevents flavor drift. Sales traceability improves inventory visibility. It’s one big ecosystem to support a better brewery.
Beer30 was built to create this complete feedback loop: from raw-material receiving through brewing, fermentation, packaging, inventory, and sales. Instead of searching paper files or stitching together multiple spreadsheets, your team can identify which lots entered a batch, which finished products came from it, and where those products were sent.
A recall will always be disruptive. But it does not have to become chaos. With complete records, clear ownership, and a tested response plan, your brewery can protect consumers, preserve trust, limit unnecessary product loss, and get back to making great beer sooner.
Learn how Beer30 brewery management software provides true grain-to-glass traceability, or request a free demo from our team of industry veterans and experts.
A beer product recall is an action taken to remove an alcohol beverage from the market because of a potential safety, quality, labeling, contamination, adulteration, or regulatory issue. A brewery may initiate a voluntary recall itself or act following a request from TTB or another regulator.
A recall generally addresses a product that violates certain laws or presents a meaningful regulatory or health concern to customers. A market withdrawal generally removes product for a minor issue that would not normally trigger regulatory action, such as a routine quality problem without a health or legal risk.
A brewery should be able to connect supplier lots, receiving records, yeast history, actual batch production, transfers and blends, quality results, packaging material lots, finished-goods batches, inventory movements, sales orders, and delivery destinations.
There is no single, universal time target for every brewery, but the exercise should be timed and completed as quickly as practical. The goal is to identify all affected inputs and destinations, reconcile the full quantity, and expose any missing records or response gaps before a real incident ever occurs. Breweries should also be prepared for regulatory requests that may require records on a shorter timetable.
Yes, if its spreadsheets are complete, current, controlled, fully accessible, and capable of connecting materials to batches and batches to customers. As production and distribution become more complex, however, disconnected spreadsheets increase the risk of missing, duplicated, or outdated information. Plus, a lot of double-handling of data, which is never fun. Brewery management software such as Beer30 centralizes those relationships and makes traceability reports faster to produce.
Grain-to-glass traceability connects incoming ingredients and packaging materials to brewing, fermentation, quality, packaging, inventory, and sales records. True traceability also works in reverse, allowing a brewery to start with a customer, package code, beer batch, or supplier lot and reconstruct the entire history.
If you have ever added fruit to a beer and dealt with trub buildup, clogged filler heads, or haze in a finished product that was supposed to run clear, The HOPGUILD has something worth knowing about.
The HOPGUILD, Beer30 Marketplace Vendor and one of the craft brewing industry's most trusted ingredient suppliers, has expanded their FRUITGUILD lineup to include clarified fruit concentrates. This is a category of fruit ingredient that is becoming increasingly important not just for craft brewers but for hard seltzer producers, cannabis beverage manufacturers, and anyone running fruit additions through a canning line.
The HOPGUILD published a detailed technical guide covering how clarified fruit works, why it matters at every stage of production, and what the regulatory implications are for canned beverages. It is one of the more thorough breakdowns of this topic written specifically for brewers and beverage producers. You can read the full guide to clarified fruit concentrates here.
The HOPGUILD's clarified lineup currently includes five varieties, all available in bag-in-box, bag-in-drum, and bag-in-tote formats sized for pilot batches through full production runs.
More varieties are being added to the clarified line on an ongoing basis.
Connect with The HOPGUILD through the Beer30 Marketplace for exclusive member pricing and more!
If you're considering Beer30 as your brewery management software, you may be wondering what the implementation process looks like. Whether you're switching from another platform or implementing brewery software for the first time, the process can seem overwhelming. Will it be hard to get started? How long will it take?
We’ve all heard stories of complicated, months-long software implementations that aren’t fully functional or embraced by their entire teams. Beer30 is different. We’ve worked hard to ensure that setting up our brewery management software is quick, easy, and efficient. We’ve had new customers fully onboarded in less than 3 days, and best of all, there are $0 in onboarding fees.
Beer30 is modular, giving you the flexibility to track, use, or pay only for the functionality you actually need. No unnecessary complexity, and no paying for features you won’t use. You can even maintain your existing ERP/MRP system for financials if you prefer, or you can make use of one of our three accounting integrations to track the dollars and cents that make your business run. This makes Beer30 an ideal fit for any brewery, whether you’re a small craft operation or a larger commercial one.
In just five simple steps, you’ll have Beer30 fully set up and running in your brewery:
Don’t believe us? Just ask our customers, like Aether Brewing below:
“What really blew us away was the speed of implementation. 24 hours from the decision to go with Beer30 and we had loaded our inventory, stock, what was in our tanks and set up for packaging. Then 36 hours after the decision, we were brewing with the support of Beer30.”
-Dave Ward, Co-Owner & Head Brewer
Aether Brewing
Queensland, Australia
The first step to setting up your brewery management software is filling out a quick onboarding form. This allows us to customize Beer30 specifically for your brewery by detailing three key areas:
One key benefit of Beer30 is that it offers unlimited users, so you can easily onboard your entire team with the necessary permission levels, at no extra cost.
“Having just recently gone through a long ERP system change that took months, the implementation time for Beer30 was night and day. New database was up within hours and had most information (recipes, ingredients, data trackers) entered in a couple days. At the size we are currently and still growing this was a massive help for adjusting to another new system.”
Pelican Brewing Company
Oregon, USA
Our live, 50-minute training session is designed to get your team familiar with Beer30's features. We cover everything from managing ingredients and recipes to tracking packaging supplies and fermentation data. By the end of the training session, you’ll know how to:
This session ensures your team is confident in using Beer30’s intuitive interface and are ready to replace inefficient paper logs, whiteboards, and spreadsheets with real-time data management and records.
“Implementation was simple… We did an hour or two training session with Pulkit and our management team then sat down our brewers for a lunch & learn and by the end of it our people felt proficient enough to hit the ground running. Initially we purchased iPads to help our crew keep information easily accessible but within a week most of them preferred to use their phone due to the simple user interface.”
-William Glass, Founder
The Brewing Projekt
Wisconsin, USA
Following our comprehensive training session, you will be ready to start using Beer30 to transform your business!
Once you login to your Beer30 account, you will be shown our onboarding wizard, which breaks down onboarding into eight easy steps: define tanks, grains, hops, adjuncts, yeast, packaging supplies, recipes, and onboard tanks. That’s it!
Five Easy Step Onboarding Wizard in Beer30.
This process doesn’t require you to go back through months worth of data, or spend weeks on a costly and confusing implementation. Instead, this onboarding process is a snapshot in time of your current situation. It is the inventory you have on hand, and details of what is in your tanks, right this minute. And as you go, you’ll have real people helping you every step of the way, with unlimited live trainings, and live WhatsApp support.
Tank Onboarding in Beer30.
Say goodbye to paper logs that get shoved in a drawer and forgotten, and say hello to seeing everything in real time. All the data you need, just a click away.
“The guys at Beer30 told us that integration would be quick & easy, and it actually was. We’ve moved almost all brewhouse planning & management into Beer 30. It allows comprehensive management in just a few minutes. All tank monitoring, QA/QC, transfers, yeast management & batch tracking are unbelievably quick & easy. Also, B30 has an unbelievably cool charting tool, that allows quick access to trending across styles, brands and a myriad of other brewhouse data points. It’s easy and intuitive, and makes decision points clear & simple.”
-Martin G. Bills, Director of Brewing Operations
Pelican Brewing
Oregon, USA
At The 5th Ingredient, we believe in supporting our customers long after the initial implementation. We offer additional, free training sessions on every aspect of Beer30, such as sales, distribution, and integration with accounting platforms like Xero, QuickBooks Online, and NetSuite. These modules can be added at any time and are designed to save you hours of administrative work by seamlessly integrating your brewery’s data and financials.
If you prefer to learn on the job, no problem! These training sessions are optional and can be scheduled whenever needed. Plus, with Beer30's user-friendly interface, many customers find that they can navigate the system intuitively. And if you don’t feel like talking to a real person today (we’ve all had those days), our AI assistant Pinty is trained on the entire Beer30 system, and is ready to help with whatever you need.
We also have a Knowledge Base available for all of our customers, with information on every aspect of using Beer30 in your business. It’s so robust that we even use it for training our own team, and is the perfect reference guide as you continue to refine your brewery’s processes and workflows.
Knowledge Base in Beer30
“The easy onboarding process and seamless integration to QuickBooks Online is, and has been, a great time saver. We have been able to eliminate several manually updated inventory spreadsheets. Now we can get the same information with just a couple of clicks in one software program.”
RJ Tursi, Founder & CEO
Exile Brewing Company
Iowa, USA
What sets Beer30 apart from other brewery management software solutions is our commitment to ongoing customer support. All of our customers receive a dedicated WhatsApp thread connecting them to our support team, ensuring immediate access to help and guidance. Whether you’re facing a challenge at 10 p.m. or need assistance on a weekend, our team is available to support you with response times ranging from seconds to minutes, instead of the days and weeks of most other software.
We don’t just set you up and send you on your way, our team is there for you if an issue should arise. And with more than 200 years of brewing industry experience amongst our team, we can help you understand how best to use Beer30 in your brewery because we’ve been exactly where you are right now. We know the challenges, and we’re here to help.
“Throughout the onboarding and now as we use it we have instant customer support via a WhatsApp chat or quick call and despite our 18 hour time difference we have immediate support throughout our day (when do they sleep lol?) Customer service is absolutely top notch which is a rare commodity in today's world.”
-Mic Heynekamp, Owner
Eddyline Brewery
Nelson, New Zealand
Our customer support is one of the key elements that makes Beer30 unique, and one that we pride ourselves on holding to the highest levels of standards. But you don’t need to take our word for it. Hear it directly from our customers.
“It doesn't matter if you are a workaholic and you work on a Sunday at 4am, the technical support does not sleep, they are always there to help you!”
-Germán Schilman, Owner
Corazón de Malta SA DE CV
Jalisco, Mexico
Beer30 is designed to optimize every aspect of your brewery operations: from grain-to-glass analysis to real-time data tracking. By simplifying brewhouse management, inventory tracking, and quality control, Beer30 empowers your team to make faster, data-driven decisions. The platform is modular, so you can choose the features that fit your brewery’s needs and scale them as your business grows and changes.
With 40% of our customers switching to us from competing software, Beer30 has proven to be a game-changer for breweries seeking a faster, more intuitive solution. Our software helps you track the true cost per batch, enabling you to make smarter business decisions and improve overall profitability.
Like what you’ve read so far? We hope we’ve convinced you of just how easy it is to get going with Beer30!
With an implementation this quick and easy, you’ll be able to watch as you can now track all of your data, from grain-to-glass. True, accurate, useful data, right at your fingertips.
You can manage your inventory with ease.
View your brew log and fermentation data with the click of a button.
And, of course, by assessing the true cost per can, bottle, or keg of beer, you will be able to better understand your overall margins and make real-time business decisions to help your brewery operate more effectively and more efficiently.
We are invested in your success and want to see our customers reach their goals.
Get in touch to start your Beer30 journey. You could be just days away from starting the process to increase your efficiency and focusing in to #BrewMoreBeer and #BrewBetterBeer, with Beer30.
It’s Not Just Another Brewery Software.
The craft beer market has changed dramatically. The days when simply making great beer and dropping it off at accounts guaranteed success are gone. Today's breweries face increased competition, changing consumer preferences, tighter retailer budgets, and a growing number of beverage options competing for the same tap handles and shelf space.
For self-distributing breweries, these challenges can feel even more intense. Your sales team isn't just responsible for selling beer. They're responsible for managing relationships, planning inventory allocations, servicing accounts, and representing your brand in the market every day.
The good news is that breweries can still grow and thrive. The breweries that succeed today aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones with the best processes, strongest relationships, and most disciplined execution.
This guide outlines practical strategies that self-distributing breweries can implement immediately to improve sales performance. Because being small means MORE focus on execution, not less.
One of the biggest mistakes breweries make in managing their sales is to lean on intuition and “vibes” more than on the data. And while data can feel like it’s hard to access or understand, most breweries are gathering that information every single day..
Your sales team (or at least managers) should know:
Without this information, sales reps spend their time reacting rather than proactively growing the business, and miss opportunities that may be obvious with the data in front of you.
It’s also critical to review your team’s performance on a weekly basis, with a focus on accountability and performance. But remember, accountability is about creating better habits and greater success, not about blame.
The breweries that measure consistently generally improve consistently.
Retailers have more choices than ever before.
Most bars, restaurants, and retailers are not looking for another supplier. They're looking for partners who help them succeed. Because beer is a recurring expense, and that means a recurring, long-term relationship will sell far more than one that is purely transactional.
Your sales team should strive to become trusted advisors.
Instead of asking:
"Can I get another tap handle?"
Ask:
"What's selling well for you right now?"
Instead of:
"Can you bring in our new IPA?"
Ask:
"What challenges are you facing with your current beer selection?"
The goal is to understand the account's business objectives first.
When your brewery helps retailers make more money, and understands their constraints, your products naturally earn more placements.
Not all accounts deserve the same amount of attention, and oftentimes, sales staff spend a lot of their limited time and resources on accounts that will only order a handful of products any given year. By recognizing the value that each account brings to your business, your team can spend their time effectively and efficiently.:
High volume accounts with strong growth potential.
Examples:
Visit these frequently, and prioritize them when considering allocated products or limited availability for tastings and events.
Steady performers with moderate growth potential.
Visit regularly but less frequently than Tier 1. Still a core part of your business, and often the most numerous type of account that has any major impact on your bottom line.
Smaller accounts with limited growth potential.
Maintain relationships efficiently through scheduled visits, calls, and email outreach.
Most breweries talk about beer styles, ingredients, and brewing techniques.But what retailers really care about is what those things mean for their business.
Instead of saying:
"This IPA uses a new hop blend."
Say:
"This IPA has performed well in similar accounts because it appeals to both craft enthusiasts and casual drinkers."
Instead of:
"We won a medal."
Say:
"This beer has strong consumer recognition and tends to turn faster on draft."
Always connect product features to business outcomes, and use the language that they use. Don’t assume that every buyer is a Cicerone, and recognize that most have no desire to be.
Success in self-distribution often comes down to consistency.
Create a structured schedule for:
The most successful sales reps rarely rely on memory. Use CRM software or a structured process to ensure every account receives regular attention, and provides accountability and visibility for everyone in the sales part of the business.
Consistency builds trust.
Trust builds sales.
Use Limited Releases Strategically
Many breweries release special beers without a clear sales objective. Limited releases should create excitement and strengthen relationships. And in many cases, it can be better to sell out of a product and leave people wanting more, than to carry unsold inventory that needs flushed through your taproom or less important accounts.
Use limited releases to:
Avoid overwhelming the market with too many one-off products.
Scarcity only works when products are genuinely scarce.
One of the most common frustrations in breweries occurs when sales and production operate independently. This “Front of House / Back of House” tension and siloing makes everyone worse off, and can create frustration amongst even the most capable teams.
Sales teams need visibility into:
Production teams need visibility into:
Regular communication prevents out of stocks, overproduction, and missed opportunities.
Accurate (or at least mostly-accurate) forecasting can be the difference between spending time and money making the wrong things, or working efficiently to produce exactly what your team needs, exactly when they need it. And with cash flow always in short supply for small brewers, the extra breathing room from good forecasting can help immensely, to ensure your most important expenses are never at risk.
Be sure to review:
The right tools can help immensely with managing costs, managing spend, and managing inventory. The brewery that knows what customers will need before they order it gains a significant advantage.
Many breweries search for a breakthrough sales strategy. In reality, growth often comes from doing the fundamentals exceptionally well.
The breweries gaining market share today are:
Craft beer remains a relationship-driven industry. The breweries that combine great beer with disciplined sales execution will continue to find success, even in challenging markets.
The modern market is competitive, but it is far from impossible.
Consumers still want great local brands. Retailers still value dependable partners. Accounts still reward breweries that help them succeed. The opportunity isn't gone. It simply belongs to breweries willing to sell smarter.
Focus on relationships. Use your data. Stay disciplined.
And remember: every pint sold starts with a conversation.
For many craft breweries, the taproom isn’t just a brand showcase… it is the business. If the majority of your revenue flows through your own doors and over your own bar, then every pint poured, every visit extended, and every guest converted into a regular customer matters. A LOT.
The good news is that, unlike distribution sales, you control nearly every variable of the taproom experience. The challenge? So does every other local bar, restaurant, or taproom competing for the same local audience.
Increasing taproom sales isn’t about one silver bullet. It’s about layering operational excellence, smart programming, and intentional guest experiences into a system that consistently drives higher spend per guest and more frequent visits.
Here’s how to do it.
The longer someone stays, the more they spend. Full stop.
But dwell time doesn’t increase by accident. It’s engineered.
Start with your physical space. Seating variety matters more than you think. High-tops for quick stops, communal tables for groups, and comfortable lounge areas for longer stays all signal different use cases. If every seat feels like it was designed for a quick pint and an even quicker getaway, people will treat it that way.
Lighting and acoustics are equally important. If your taproom is too loud to talk or too dim to feel welcoming in the afternoon, you’re unintentionally capping visit length. A comfortable butt is one that stays in its seat for longer.
Actionable takeaway: Audit your taproom from a guest’s perspective. Ask yourself: What would make me stay for one more beer?
More options don’t always mean more sales. In fact, overly complex tap lists can slow decision-making and reduce throughput at the bar.
Instead, structure your menu to guide behavior:
Descriptions matter. A guest who understands what they’re ordering is more likely to order confidently, and to order again. Samples and an educated staff are also vital for helping guide the customer to the choices most likely to surprise and delight them.
Also, don’t ignore non-beer offerings. Whether it’s N/A options, food, or a tight selection of wine/cocktails, you reduce the risk of losing a whole group due to one picky member, and add more revenue to the tab.
Actionable takeaway: Highlight 2-3 “featured” beers at any given time that you want to move, and train staff to talk about them.
Your bartenders are your most powerful revenue lever, and often your most underutilized one.
Great taproom staff do three things consistently:
This isn’t about turning your bar into a sales floor. It’s about hospitality that naturally increases the average spend.
Simple scripting helps:
Also, incentivize performance where appropriate. Even small recognition programs can shift behavior meaningfully.
Actionable takeaway: Run short, weekly staff tastings and talking-point sessions so your team feels confident recommending beers.
If your taproom relies on repeat local traffic, you need to give people a reason to return frequently.
That doesn’t mean constant events. It means intentional programming.
Consider a rhythm:
The goal is predictability with enough variation to stay interesting.
Consistency is key. A well-run weekly event that reliably brings in 40-60 people will outperform sporadic “big” events that are hard to execute.
Also, think beyond traditional events. Community-driven gatherings such as book clubs, industry nights, or hobby meetups often create deeper loyalty.
Actionable takeaway: Build a simple monthly calendar and stick to it. Promote it everywhere: taproom, email, social, etc.
People rarely come to taprooms alone. Your revenue depends on groups, and groups behave differently than individuals.
A group’s decision-making is slower, but their spending potential is higher.
Make it easy for groups to:
Also, remove friction:
If groups feel friction, they leave earlier. If they feel taken care of, they stay and order more.
Actionable takeaway: Observe a busy night. Where do groups get stuck or confused? Fix those moments first. Think like your customers.
You don’t need enterprise-level systems to make smarter decisions. You just need to track the right things.
At minimum, pay attention to:
Use this data to:
For example, if Tuesday nights are consistently slow, that’s an opportunity, not a problem. Build something around it, and make it work for you.
Actionable takeaway: Review your weekly sales trends every Monday. Make one small adjustment based on what you see.
Getting someone in the door is only half the battle. The real value comes from turning that first visit into a habit.
Start with the basics:
Then layer in retention:
You don’t need a complex loyalty program, but you do need some way to stay connected.
And if you ARE looking to add some digital firepower to your loyalty and rewards, we recommend reaching out to the folks at TapWyse. We even have discounts available through the Beer30 Marketplace for users.
Actionable takeaway: Train staff to ask first-time visitors how they heard about you, and to invite them back before they leave.
Pricing in taprooms is often driven by instinct or fear of being “too expensive.” But underpricing can hurt your business just as much as overpricing.
Consider:
If your taproom delivers strong value (great beer, great atmosphere, great service) you have room to price accordingly.
Also, use pricing to guide behavior:
The goal isn’t to maximize price per beer. It’s to maximize the total customer spend per visit.
And remember the Middle Option Bias: people tend to opt for the middle of any three (or five, or seven) options. Use that to your advantage and price your highest margin beer appropriately!
Actionable takeaway: Test small price adjustments on select items and monitor the impact on sales.
Cleanliness, speed, and consistency don’t show up on Instagram, but they drive repeat business.
A slow bar kills momentum. Dirty glassware kills trust. Inconsistent beer quality kills loyalty.
Operational excellence isn’t flashy, but it’s foundational.
Focus on:
If these basics aren’t dialed in, no amount of marketing will fix your sales problem.
Actionable takeaway: Do a quarterly “mystery shop” of your own taproom. Honestly assess the experience.
The most successful taprooms aren’t just places to drink. They’re places to belong.
When people feel connected to your brewery, they visit more often, spend more per visit, bring friends, and advocate for your brand.
Community doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built through consistency, authenticity, and engagement. It’s a choice you make, and an action you undertake, every single day as a business.
Show up for your customers, and they’ll show up for you.
Actionable takeaway: Identify your regulars and treat them like insiders. They’ll become your best evangelists.
Increasing taproom sales isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about refining the fundamentals and executing them consistently.
Focus on:
Do those things well, and never forget that experience is the core of good hospitality, and your revenue will follow.
The breweries that succeed in their own taprooms aren’t just making great beer. They’re delivering an experience people want to come back to, again and again.
And in a crowded market, that’s the real differentiator.
