Getting started with Breww is designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible. A number of areas can be populated using our CSV/Excel Data Importers, whereas others can be set up easily from within the software itself.
We have a Breww glossary which may be helpful to refer back to if youâre ever unsure what is meant be a word you see in this guide, or in Breww itself.
Below is our suggested order to set up Breww to ensure you get the most out of the software:
1. Bring your customers and contacts into Breww
This can be done either via our Data Importer or, if youâre using a compatible 3rd party accounting provider, you can download and map your customers and contacts once the integration with your account is enabled.
We also recommend creating your suppliers at this point too, as having your suppliers already in Breww will enable you to set up your inventory more effectively. This can either be done via the integration with your accounting software or via our bulk CSV uploader.
Note, Data Importers for Customers, Suppliers and Contacts of customers and suppliers can be found in Settings â Data imports & updates.
2. Tell Breww about your brewing vessels
In order to produce beer in Brewwâs production suite, youâll need to set up your brewkit and vessels. In Breww, everything you use to brew the beer itself (such as a kettle, HLT or mash tun) is represented as a single âbrewing systemâ. You can set up your brewing system in Production â View â All equipment â Add equipment â Add brewing system.
Once youâve added your brewing system, you can now add your fermentation vessels and other secondary vessels, such as brite tanks. To do this, head to Production â View â All equipment â Add equipment â Add vessel. From here, you can add all the vessels you use in your beer production. You can also opt to hide vessels from the production dashboard if you donât need to see them all the time - this is particularly handy if you have a number of vessels (such as barrels, for example) that do not need to be visualised here.
3. Start to build out your stock items
In Breww, the Stock items section is the place to enter details on everything you buy in, this ranges from raw materials, packaging items and even guest beers. Stock items are built across two âlayersâ, the first of which is the name of your stock items, including the data around them, such as their unit of measurement, type & whether theyâre batch tracked.
The second layer is where you can start to build out the quantities of these items. In Breww, the quantity of a given item is stored across the batches it pertains to. This means that you still have an overall quantity of an item, but it will be split across multiple batches (if there are multiple). We have âData importersâ for both of these two layers, Stock Items and Stock Levels & Batches. Note, you can use our Raw Data Explorer to extract the names of your inventory items to help you populate the import template more quickly - go to Reporting â Raw data explorer â Stock items (inventory).
Breww offers a convenient feature for adding stock items that you also want to sell as products, such as merchandise. When adding a stock item via the Stock items importer, you can simply check the âsell this stock itemâ box. This will not only add the inventory item to stock, but it will also automatically create a saleable product in Breww, saving you time and effort.
4. Set up Container Types
Container Types are the building blocks of your packaged beer products, and theyâre necessary to have set up in Breww before you start creating products. Container types represent the âbase unitâ of your packaged beer. Individual Container Types should be set up for every way you package your beer, be it firkins, non-returnable kegs or 440ml cans.
A note on smallpack (cans and bottles) - itâs recommended that you only create the base unit container here and not multipacks (i.e create 440ml can only and do not create a 12 x 440ml can), this is to ensure that our packaging reformatting function can seamlessly convert between the various smallpack products you sell. New container types can be added in Containers â New container type. Stock items can also be added to a container type, so that when you rack you also deplete this item from your inventory (for example, empty cans).
If you use multiple brands of the same sized container (e.g. Kegstar/MicroStar, Polykeg, KeyKeg, you own, etc) it may be beneficial to read the Selling the same beer in both my own casks/kegs and rented/non-returnable containers guide.
5. Set up your Beers & Recipes
In Breww, Beers sit above Recipes in terms of their hierarchy and contain data such as their ABV, allergens & beer style. From within a Beer, you can also choose the containers you package this beer in, to help you populate your product list more quickly. Recipes sit below beers, and they contain the data behind how you actually brew the beer itself. Recipes contain the various âbrew dayâ stages in addition to your ingredient additions, checks, readings and the timings of each step. Recipes (& individual stages of recipes) can even be copied over to different beers to help you save time when you may have recipes that share similar attributes. Beers and Recipes can be added in Production â View beers or View recipes.
If you have more âcomplicatedâ beers, such as:
- âAlias/Rebadged Beersâ (where you sell two identical beers, but under different names);
- or âDerived Beersâ (where one beer is a post-fermentation modification of another âbase beerâ)
âŠthen weâd highly recommend reading our dedicated guide to Alias, Derived & Guest beers, before creating these beers in Breww. It is also worth noting that Guest Beers should be handled via a special type of Stock Item in Breww, rather than as a âBeerâ, which is intended for your own beers (even if you have them contract brewed on your behalf).
You can also bulk-add your beers into Breww using the import tool in Settings â Data imports & updates â Beers.
6. Build out your product list
In Breww, Products are the things you sell (as opposed to Stock items which are the things you buy in).
Products can be easily created by clicking Products from the main menu, then clicking the New product button, and following the steps on the screen. Alternatively, you can use our bulk importer to quickly add your products to Breww. The importer can be found in Settings â Data imports & updates â Products.
You can create a few different types of products in Breww, including single cans, multipacks, mixed-packs of beer and even products containing a beer and stock item product, such as a 6 pack with a free glass. Labels, boxes and other packaging items can be added to products as well, to easily keep track of these items.
To find out more on this, see our Introduction to Products guide.
7. Import any tracked containers
If you have your own fleet of tracked containers (casks & kegs), these should be loaded into Breww. The importer can be accessed via Settings â Data imports & updates â Containers. From this importer, you can bring in your containers, in addition to their current location (e.g. at the brewery or with a customer).
Please note, this importer is only used for containers you own and not for non-returnables (these are dealt with in Step 8 below). Once loaded into Breww, you can print permanent barcodes for these containers. If you donât already have a permanent label printer, we have some detail about our requirements in our Label printing and barcode scanning guide. If you already have your containers labelled with a barcode, we can quite possibly use their existing labels. Typically, the barcode will contain the cask/keg code, in which case theyâll likely âjust workâ, so give them a try, but if not, please get in touch, and weâll help you get them working if possible, to save re-labelling them all.
8. Import your initial packaged beer stock
Any beer that you have pre-packaged can be quickly imported into Breww now that you have the key elements above set up. The importer can be accessed via Settings â Data imports & updates â Initial packaged beer stock.
This importer allows you to specify the product you wish to populate, the quantity of a certain gyle and the code of a container if it is in a cask or keg. Products in non-returnable containers can be imported here by leaving the Container Code section blank. Note, you can use our Raw Data Explorer to extract the names of your products to help you populate the import template more quickly (Reporting â Raw data explorer â Products).
If you have duty-paid packaged beer stock that has been contract-brewed for you by a 3rd party, it may be best to follow the contract brewing process in Breww to bring this beer into stock with a full audit trail of who brewed it & when and the fact that duty has been pre-paid on it. We have a full outline of this process at Contract brewing in Breww.
9. Get Breww up to speed with your beers in vessel (tank)
Now that youâre almost ready to go, you can get Breww synchronised with your brewery by adding your beers that are currently in tank. To do this, go to Production â Actions â New batch and select the beer you want to get in tank - you donât need to select a recipe here, otherwise youâll be counting your raw materials twice. You can add the costs of these ingredients to the Utility/other costs tab on the batch. Breww will still calculate the duty on this beer once sold, as the ABV is stored in the Beer itself. You can also plan out future batches here from the same menu.
Beers in tank can alternatively be uploaded in bulk into Breww via the data import tool in Settings â Data imports & updates â Beer batches in vessel with all relevant details (such as batch number, vessel and associated cost).
10. Configure your settings
Breww is able to be customised to the way you work, make sure to go through the Settings menu and configure Breww to your preferences. This is also the place to connect Breww with your webshop, accounting platform and POS platform.
We hope this guide is useful and allows you to get the most out of Breww. If you need any further assistance, please check out our Help docs & tutorials, or feel free to get in touch via the Breww Community or Support Tickets if you need anything else.