In this guide 6 sections
Start with ready software when your needs are tanks, batches, recipes and stock. Go custom where excise records, cellar transfers, blending or your own sales channels do not fit a standard screen. Many producers use a ready tool and add one small custom module.
What ready tools cover well
Most ready brewery and winery tools handle recipes, brew sheets, tank status and finished stock. They suit a producer who brews to a plan and sells through a taproom or a few distributors. Setup is quick. The screens are tried.
They also keep the cost low. You pay for a product built by people who talk to many cellars. That experience shows in small details like gravity readings and fermentation logs.
If your process looks like everyone else’s, ready is the sensible start.
- Brew sheets with grain, hops and yeast lots
- Tank board showing contents and status
- Packaging runs for kegs, cans and bottles
- Finished stock by pack size and lot
Tank and batch tracking is the core test
Request a live transfer in the demo. Beer moves from fermenter to bright tank, volume drops, a loss figure is noted, and a second batch is blended in. Does the system keep the lineage? A recall needs it. Check.
Wine is harder. A single tank may take lots from three vineyards, then be split across barrels. Each barrel carries a vintage, a varietal and a racking history. Many ready tools handle a simple version and stumble on blends.
Run your messiest real batch through a demo. Judge the product by that, not by its sample data.
Excise and cellar records decide the custom question
Each country, and often each state, sets its own excise rules. A producer files returns that depend on volumes produced, stored in bond, removed and lost. Your regulator names the registers and the format. Read their guidance, not a vendor brochure.
Ready tools often offer a generic bond register. Check whether it matches the form your authority wants and whether it reconciles movements between cellar, bond store and sale. Ask for a sample return produced from demo data.
Where the form is unusual, a custom report or module over your own data is usually smaller than a full custom system. This article offers no legal advice, so check obligations with your adviser.
- Opening stock, production, receipts and removals
- Losses by type: evaporation, spillage, breakage
- Bond and duty-paid stock kept apart
- Register layout your regulator expects
Where custom earns its place
Custom pays when the process itself is your edge. A winery with a members’ club shipping across several states will outgrow a standard package. So will a brewery with a contract-packing arm.
The better pattern is a split. Keep the ready tool for recipes, tanks and packaging. Build a custom layer for the club portal, the excise return or a distributor ordering page, reading from the same stock numbers.
Avoid rebuilding tank logic from scratch. It is the hardest part. Ready tools have already tested it.
A short way to choose
List the five records you must produce every month. Mark each as covered, awkward or missing in the ready tool you like most. Two or more missing means a custom layer is worth pricing.
Take this list to a demo and ask for each record live. Decide afterwards. Never before.
Ready or custom: cellar records worksheet
Use one page with three columns. Column one lists the records you keep: brew or crush sheet, tank log, barrel register, packaging run, bond register, excise return and distributor statement. Column two marks each as covered, awkward or missing in the tool being demoed. Column three names the person who files it and how often.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can one tool run both a brewery and a winery?
Some can, but the records differ. Wine needs blends, barrels and vintages. Beer needs fast batch turnover and packaging runs. Test the tool against the product you make most of.
Is custom software always more expensive than ready?
Not always, but it takes longer to start. A small module on top of a ready tool is often cheaper than either a full custom build or years of spreadsheet workarounds.
How do we check the excise register is right?
Ask for a sample return from demo data and compare it to your regulator’s form. Then reconcile one real month of movements before relying on it for filing.
What data should we keep before switching tools?
Keep opening tank contents, bond stock, open batches and supplier lots. Past brew sheets can be exported as files and stored, with only live batches moved across.