Spreadsheet or Brewery Software: What Changes When Records Grow

A spreadsheet is enough while one person holds the whole picture in their head. It stops being enough when the records need to agree with each other, or when more than one person is typing.

Nothing here is a rule. It's a list of strain points to think about.

Several sheets that say different things

Batches in one file, kegs in another, stock in a third. Each is fine alone. The trouble starts when you copy a number from one to the next.

One maker's help guide says that with its recipe section "you can say goodbye to your clipboard, paper, and calculator".¹ That's the maker's own description of its program. Read it as the problem the maker is aiming at, not a measured result.

More than one person typing

A shared file works until two people edit the same line. That is worth asking about when you look at any program: can several people enter data at once, and what happens if two change the same record? Check the maker's documentation.

Kegs in the field

A keg tally on a sheet tells you how many you own. It doesn't tell you where each one is.

One maker's keg guide describes the other approach. It says its program shows "how long customers have had them".² Read that as one maker's view. Plenty of small breweries get by with a careful sheet.

The keg tracking page shows how a scan-based record works instead.

Tracing a batch

Here's a test. A customer rings and asks which batch their keg came from. How long would your answer take? Ten seconds, or an afternoon with three files and a box of delivery notes?

A sheet can hold lot numbers. It can't easily follow one lot through every batch and delivery unless you build those links yourself. See ingredient lots for what programs offer, and batch records for the fields involved.

Questions to ask yourself

• Do the same numbers get typed in more than once?
• Do two people ever edit the same file at once?
• Could you answer "which customers got this batch?" today, without a long search?
• Does the system live in one person's head?
• Do your kegs ever go missing without anyone noticing?

If most answers are no, a sheet may be fine. If several are yes, read what the makers say in their own documentation, because plans, prices and features change often.

What the move costs

Switching isn't free. You'd move your history across, learn the program, and change habits in the brewhouse. This site can't put a figure on that, and it won't invent one.

A sheet you trust beats a program nobody fills in. The best test is whether the people who brew and pack will really enter the data, every time.