Brewing Industry Inventory Software with Batch Tracking
BSimple handles the full complexity of craft brewing inventory — from grain delivery to tap — without the MRP/ERP price tag.
- Grain bill and recipe management — define beer recipes with grain bills, hop additions, yeast strains, and adjuncts. Version and archive recipes.
- Brew batch tracking with unique codes — every batch gets a unique brew number and barcode for full traceability
- Ingredient traceability — track malt, hops, and yeast by supplier lot from delivery through to finished kegs and cans
- Production run management — manage kegging, canning, and bottling runs with automatic inventory deduction
- Xero COGS per batch — material costs calculated per brew and pushed to Xero for accurate profitability reporting
- Customer ordering portal — pub, restaurant, and bottle shop accounts place orders online, reducing phone and email order entry
Craft brewing has some of the most complex inventory requirements of any food and beverage business. You’re tracking raw ingredients — multiple malt varieties, hop pellets by variety and lot, yeast strains, adjuncts — and each one has to be managed by supplier lot for quality and compliance. Your recipes (grain bills, hop schedules, water chemistry) need to be followed consistently and documented. Every batch needs records. Then there’s the finished goods side: kegs of different sizes, cans, bottles, mixed cases, maybe a cellar door selling direct.
Picture a small craft brewer in regional Victoria — maybe 2,000 hectolitres a year, selling to local venues and a growing wholesale list. Managing all of that on spreadsheets means hours of manual work every week and real risk of errors. BSimple handles brewing inventory end-to-end without the complexity or cost of a full MRP or ERP system. It’s sized for small and mid-sized craft breweries who want proper control without a six-figure software bill.
Recipe Management for Grain Bills and Hop Schedules
In BSimple, you define your beer recipes as Bills of Materials — grain bill by weight, hop additions by variety and timing (boil additions, dry hop, whirlpool), yeast strain, adjuncts, finings, and any other inputs. You can add notes for water chemistry targets, mash temperatures, and process parameters. Recipes are versioned, so when you tweak a hop schedule or adjust your grain bill, the history is kept and old versions are archived — not deleted.
When you’re ready to brew, you raise a production run against the recipe. BSimple calculates the exact ingredient quantities needed for your planned batch volume — whether you’re doing a pilot 500L batch or a full 20hL brew. Before you confirm the run, the system checks stock availability across all your ingredients and warns you if anything is running short. No more discovering mid-brew that you’re short on a key hop variety.
Once the brew is complete and transferred to fermenter, you confirm the production run in BSimple. Raw ingredients are deducted from inventory. Finished goods (wort or green beer, depending on your workflow) are created as work-in-progress. When kegging or packaging runs are done, finished goods are created in inventory ready to dispatch.
For more on how BSimple handles manufacturing workflows, see our manufacturing inventory software page.
Brew Batch Tracking and Traceability
Every batch in BSimple gets a unique brew number with a barcode. This isn’t just an internal reference — it’s the thread that connects your supplier deliveries to your customer invoices.
When a pallet of malt arrives from your maltster, you record the supplier’s lot number against the stock receipt. When that malt goes into a brew, BSimple links your brew batch to the supplier lot. When kegs from that batch are delivered to a venue, the batch is recorded against the customer order and Xero invoice.
That chain matters for two reasons. First, quality control: if a batch comes out off-spec, you can trace exactly which ingredients (and which supplier lots) contributed. If there’s a quality issue with a specific maltster’s lot, you can immediately identify which batches are affected and take action. Second, compliance: some markets and certifications require ingredient-level traceability. BSimple makes that available without extra record-keeping effort.
For breweries with multiple fermenters and tanks, BSimple tracks which batches are in which vessel as they move through the production process. Full traceability from grain delivery to tap — not a piece of paper on the wall of the cold room.
Xero Integration for Craft Breweries
Brewing is capital-intensive. Grain, hops, packaging, and energy costs mean your COGS per hectolitre needs to be accurate — otherwise you’re flying blind on pricing and profitability. BSimple calculates material costs as each production run is completed, and those costs flow to Xero automatically.
Purchase orders for ingredients (malt, hops, adjuncts, packaging materials) are raised in BSimple and match to supplier bills in Xero when stock is received. No double entry. Sales to pubs, bottle shops, restaurants, and distributors create Xero invoices automatically when orders are dispatched from BSimple. If you also sell direct through a cellar door or online store, BSimple handles both wholesale and direct sales channels, with all invoices flowing to Xero correctly.
GST treatment is handled correctly for Australian breweries — including the interaction between excise duty and GST which can trip up overseas software. Your bookkeeper gets clean Xero data at BAS time without needing to chase corrections.
For a full picture of how the Xero integration works, visit our Xero integration page.
Brewing up success in the industry? BSimple’s Free Order Management Software can streamline your operations, from tracking inventory to fulfilling orders. And with our intuitive UML diagrams, you can visualize your entire supply chain, optimizing efficiency at every step. Whether you’re a wholesale, manufacturing, or distribution business, BSimple has the tools to keep your brew flowing smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does BSimple have a brewery management module?
Yes. BSimple includes a manufacturing module that works well for craft breweries. You can manage grain bill recipes, run production batches with automatic ingredient deduction, track batches with unique brew numbers for traceability, manage kegging and packaging runs, and have COGS flow to Xero automatically. It’s not a brewery-specific MRP — it’s a lightweight manufacturing and inventory platform that covers what most craft breweries actually need.
How do I track hop and grain lots in BSimple?
When stock arrives from a supplier, you record the supplier’s lot number against the stock receipt in BSimple. When those ingredients are used in a production run, BSimple links the brew batch to the supplier lots used. This gives you full backward traceability — you can see exactly which supplier lots went into any given batch. If a supplier notifies you of a quality issue with a specific lot, you can immediately identify which brews are affected.
Can BSimple manage both wholesale and direct sales for a brewery?
Yes. BSimple handles multiple sales channels — wholesale orders to venues, bottle shops, and distributors, as well as direct sales through a cellar door or online. Both channels can use separate pricing tiers. All sales flow through to Xero as invoices regardless of channel. The customer ordering portal is particularly useful for trade accounts who want to place repeat orders without calling or emailing.
How does batch tracking help with brewery compliance?
Batch tracking in BSimple creates a documented chain from supplier ingredient lot through production to customer invoice. If you need to demonstrate ingredient provenance (for organic certification, export compliance, or a quality investigation), that record is available immediately. For breweries pursuing organic or clean-label certifications, BSimple also supports mass balance tracking to certify that certified ingredients are kept separate through the production process.
Does BSimple integrate with Xero for brewery financials?
Yes. BSimple connects to Xero via the official Xero API. Production COGS flows to Xero automatically. Purchase orders for ingredients match to supplier bills. Sales orders create Xero invoices. GST treatment is correct for Australian breweries. Most brewery customers find their Xero reconciliation is significantly faster after implementing BSimple, because the data comes across clean with no manual corrections needed at BAS time.