Our mixed fermentation beers are packaged in bottles, and left unlabeled for some time until the abv has been tested and the label has been approved. In our previous brewing software we used a product named “XYZ Beer - UNLABELED” to keep track of stock, and know it is not sellable. Then, once labels came in and we had an inventory receipt transformed the unlabeled beer with the labels to form a new product, “XYZ Beer - Blend 3”. What is the best way to accomplish this in Breww?
- identify beers not ready for sale
- create batch specific products
- add labels to the cost of finished product after it has been packaged/batch has been closed.
Thanks!
Hi Barry, Thanks for reaching out!
- To hold and identify stock that is not ready for sale, I recommend creating delayed racking releases; our How to rack beer for bottle/cask conditioning without releasing it for sale immediately guide discusses this further.
- It sounds like you could do what you need with a single product rather than a ‘specific’ product for the unlabelled stock. When you rack the product, you could simply rack it without including the bottle label as a component stock item and have this as a delayed racking release.
- Once you have the label, you could simply head to the batch and select the Ingredients tab. If you then select Add other, you will be able to add the labels to the original racking action of the bottles so that the cost is included.
I hope this helps, and let me know if you need anything else. Cheers!
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the quick response. I know you do not close accounting periods, but if the racking action took place 4 months before the labels are in and applied to the package the additional cost would need to take place in the current month, not at the date of racking.
There are two primary concerns:
- identifying stock that is labeled and unlabeled or just batch by batch
- making sure the cost is added to the specific stock items at the correct time
Barry
Maybe make an “UNLABELED” beer/product, set it as only packaged / never sold / or whatever, and make the labelled one an alias. Then, I think you could “convert between related products”? Would that work?
(would be even better if we could consume a stock item when converting, but I don’t think that’s the case?)
That was the case with our previous platform. You could use an “item transform” to create a new product or stock item out of a combination of other items.
That’s a nice idea. I think the closest we can get is converting to a related product… Come to think of it, “alias” probably isn’t the way to go, since breww " will not keep a stock distinction between [them]". So maybe “derived” is better. So the sketch would be: Have two beers - the base and the derived saleable one. Rack into the UNLABELED beer/product. Then later, add the labels to the batch and convert?
This seems very complicated 
Sounds like a feature request for “item transform” is called for?
Hi Barry, Thanks for your reply. @jon-kyme2 is almost there with his alternative solution, but there are a few aspects to change, which should mean you achieve what you need.
You could first create a standard product for ‘XYZ Beer—UNLABELED’. Once this is created, you can select Actions → Edit on the product and select Packaged only (cannot be added to an order) under Can this product be packaged, sold, or both? This means you will clearly see unlabelled stock held in Breww, and you won’t be able to accidentally add this product to orders.
If you then create a derived at packaging beer and product, you will be able to assign the label stock item to the derived at packaging product and define the ABV. When the beer has been labelled, you will be able to head to the ‘XYZ Beer—UNLABELED’ product and select Actions → Convert between related beers. You will then be able to choose the derived product and the batch. This will also allow the addition of stock items, which will autofill with what has already been set on the derived packaging product (the label). This will then turn your stock into the labelled version of your beer. You may find the Alias, derived & guest beers guide helpful for this, but let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!
Ahh, " Convert between related beers " does allow adding stock items(labels, here)? I missed that. Sorry.
So this is basically the same as Barry’s “item transform” at least for products (that are related. i.e. derived in this case)
Thank you Ben. This will be very helpful.
On a similar note, is beer derived at packaging the way you recommend dealing with any beers that have a vintage?
Hi Barry, thanks for your reply, and no problem! When handling beers of different vintages, then I recommend creating these as multiple standard beers and products rather than derived at packaging. The main reason for a derived at packaging beer is to give you the ability to package two separate beers from a single batch, where you can convert products between the parent and derived beer.
If you are creating different vintages, it sounds like these are all ‘stand-alone’ beers. For example, this year’s vintage would be ‘Vintage 2024’, and you wouldn’t need to package or convert stock with a product called ‘Vintage 2022’, so the only beer you will package from this will be ‘Vintage 2024’, which is why I would recommend creating a standard beer each time you brew a new vintage.
If you are using the same recipe as a previous year, the recipe can simply be duplicated and assigned to the new beer vintage and either kept the same or edited. This will mean that the recipes that were brewed that year are held against the brewed vintage.
Let me know if you have any other questions! Cheers!
Hi Ben
Finally at a point where I need to do this. If I create a new beer/product that is derived at packaging it seems that the new labeled product would not be tied to the actual beer? Seems fulfilling orders from POS where singles are sold but inventory is held in cases would be broken?
Is there any other way to handle this?
Hi Barry, Thanks for your reply. The derived at packaging beer and product would be a separate ‘stock pool’ of stock from the primary product; however, by using the Convert between related beers feature, you would be able to convert the cases stored into the labelled version. Provided you have a single unit product and a case product for the derived at packaging beer, then this will disassemble/assemble as required. If you have a specific example, it would be great if you could raise this as a ticket, with access to your account granted, I can check this for you. Cheers!
Ben - I want to follow up on your 9/17 post about vintages and derived in vessel vs derived in packaging. Side note: If what I’m laying out below constitutes a highjacking of this thread and is better suited as a new thread then my apologies, let me know and I’ll do just that.
We have a Beer called Frída - a Flemish Red style.
We release this product about once a year, so each packaging/release is a unique vintage.
We use the same recipe for each batch of that beer, so there is only one current version of the recipe in our files.
However the Product is usually a blend of different gyles/batches of that recipe.
The Products can be from not only different batches from the same year but also from batches of this recipe ANY year.
We brew this recipe a couple times per year.
Each brew gets a unique batch/gyle number.
Each batch usually consists of 3 turns which we will split evenly to fill 2 oak barrels.
Each oak barrel has a unique vessel number.
The wort inside these two oak barrels will share the same batch number.
When it comes time to rack and release this years vintage we:
Select barrels for blending
Identify the blending ratio
Rack the appropriate volume of each barrel into a holding vessel to blend
Add our yeast and sugar for bottle conditioning
Package into bottles, label and hold until ready for release.
Important to note here that we often don’t use ALL of the contents of a barrel and any Unused portion of a barrel is kept and can be treated in a couple different ways:
Either used in the future to create a different vintage’s blend.
Combined with another partially full barrels of the same base beer style (ie. two half used barrels maybe combined (potentially two barrels with different batch numbers).
Or even fresh wort (of a new batch #) along with fresh yeast, added to top off the barrel.
In these last two scenarios the barrel now has 2 batch numbers associated with it.
I am unsure of how to properly create this beer type, its corresponding recipe and Products to account for some of the key facts above and particularly unsure of how the handling of barrels full of two separate batches will complicate things in Breww and hoping you guys can shed some light on the best way to handle this.
My thought is that I create a Standard Beer called: Frída and each batch/gyle is brewed as a standard beer according to the recipe associated with that beer. Then when it comes time to package and release, we create a Derived in Vessel Beer (for that vintage): ie: Frída 2025. Then the Products of that beer are associated with that derived in vessel beer. New wort (ie new batches) of the base beer could be added to partially full barrels and that newly full barrel could still be used in some future Derived in Vessel version of that beer. Does that sound right or is there a better way to handle all this?
Hi Tait, Thanks for reaching out! Firstly, if this beer is brewed over three turns, provided you use Breww’s multi-turn mechanism, then these three turns will use the same batch number, and the turns can be transferred into two oak barrel vessels. If you are likely to blend specific batches from one year with batches from another, then it sounds like a derived in-vessel beer for your specific vintages should work for what you need here. This will allow you to brew multiple multi-turn batches of the beer, blend these batches accordingly, and then turn the proportion you need into the specific derived in-vessel vintage for packaging; the derived in-vessel beer could also include a recipe for any extra additions, such as sugar. Breww will generate a new batch number as you merge batches. This is unless the amount being transferred/blended is going into the entirety of another batch; this will instead inherit the batch number of the batch it has been merged into and will add a batch reference of both batch numbers. You will then be able to continue blending the beer with new ‘fresh’ batches and then package this as a different vintage. Let me know if you need anything else. Cheers.
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Thanks Ben - One followup question: do I also need to create a Standard Beer for this to work? Or is this configuration as I described a “derived in vessel” beer only?
Hi Tait, Thanks for your reply. A ‘Standard’ beer will need to exist, as this will be the beer you brew in your brewing system; derived in vessel beers cannot be brewed in your brewing system and can only be created after a batch of the primary beer is produced, and is in vessel. Let me know if you need anything else. Cheers!