Packaging Runs: Recording Kegs, Cans and Bottles From One Batch

A packaging run is the moment one batch becomes things you can sell. A single tank might become kegs, cans and bottles. On paper, you'd write down how many of each you filled. A program is meant to keep those counts tied to the batch.

One batch, several formats

You enter how many of each you filled. Keeping each count linked to the batch is what lets a can on a shelf be traced to a brew. See ingredient lots for how the trace goes further back. Wikipedia's lot number page talks of recall information going to "subsets of their production output".¹ A batch number on each package gives finished beer the same benefit. If a problem turns up later, you can name exactly which packages are affected. Without that number, every package from the brewery is in question. Read the maker's documentation for how a given program stores packaging counts.

Containers one by one, or in counts

Kegs and casks are often tracked singly, since each one moves and comes back. Cans and bottles are more often counted in cases. Whether you want single-container detail for cans is your choice. See keg tracking for the keg side.

Checks around packaging

Some programs can build checks into packaging. One maker's help guide says its program "supports packaging approvals".² The stated aim is "to ensure certain quality parameters are met before and after packaging".²

On required checks, the guide puts it this way: packaging "cannot proceed until the approval is completed".² You set the checks. The program only enforces them.

It also describes a setting where "a separate approval is created for each planned packaging on the batch".²

Why bother? Because once beer is in kegs and out the door, a missed check is hard to undo. A required check makes someone look first. It adds a step, though. If nobody signs off, the beer sits.

Losses and leftovers

Not every litre in the tank ends up in a package. Some stays behind, and some gets spilled or poured away. If the run only records what was packaged, the batch looks smaller than it was, and you can't see where the rest went. A line for losses fixes that. Use it.

If you pack a batch twice, say kegs on Monday and cans on Thursday, record each as its own run. Otherwise the totals blur, and the batch's yield looks wrong.

Duty and tax

Excise and duty depend on what you package and where you are. Those rules differ by country, so use your tax authority's guidance or an accountant. This site doesn't give advice on them.

The page on keg tracking covers what happens to the kegs after the run.