Guides
Weekly counts, monthly reconciliation: a brewery and taproom stock checklist
A signed weekly count and a monthly reconciliation, with the storage checks and six ordinary causes that explain most brewery and taproom variance.
What to take away
- Weekly, on the same day and hourfinished beer, kegs on tap, part bags of malt, gas, chemicals and packaging.
- Monthlyevery tank and batch, plus the reconciliation against sales.
- Reconcile pours sold and logged comps against kegs tapped. The remainder is draft loss, and it belongs to the taproom.
- Weigh part kegs and part bags, then write the method on the sheet so the next count matches.
- Write the unexplained remainder every month. One sheet proves nothing. Twelve sheets point at a cause.
The count day and its five rules
Pick one day and defend it. Most taprooms count at the end of the trading week, before the next delivery lands, so the sheet describes a complete cycle.
- Same day, same hour, every week.
- Two people count, and neither of them places the orders.
- Nothing moves during the count. Deliveries wait.
- Numbers go on the sheet while counting, never from memory later.
- Both counters sign and date it.
A count pulled from the software is not a count. The exercise compares what is on the floor with what the system believes.
Count day rules
- Same day, same time, every week
- Two people, one not placing orders
- Nothing moves during the count
- Written on the sheet at counting
- Signed and dated by both people
The weekly sheet: six lines to write down
| Line | Record | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Kegs in the cooler | Beer, count, full or part | Part kegs carry the largest error |
| Kegs on tap | Beer and date tapped | A long-tapped keg marks a slow seller |
| Packaged stock | Units and date code range | Date codes flag stock past its best |
| Malt and hops | Whole bags, weighed part bags, lot | Lot detail answers a quality problem |
| Gas and chemicals | Full cylinders, opened chemicals | A run stops without either |
| Glassware | Count, and breakage since the last count | Breakage is a real weekly cost |
Kegs tapped convert to theoretical pours. Subtract pours sold and logged comps, and what remains is draft loss. Separating draft loss from cellar loss is a planning job, set out in how sourcing and inventory planning works.
Part kegs and part bags: weigh, then divide
A part keg is the largest single source of weekly error in most taprooms. Guess by eye and two counters will disagree by several pours.
Weigh the keg and subtract the tare stamped on the spear or collar. Divide by the weight of a gallon of that beer, then multiply by 128 for fluid ounces.
Part bags of malt get the same bench scale treatment. Record ounces or kilograms, never a fraction of a bag. Canadian taprooms run the same arithmetic in kilograms.
Monthly: tanks, batches and loss per batch
Weekly is too often for tanks, and never is too rare.
- Volume in each fermenter and brite tank, by batch.
- Days in tank against the plan for that batch.
- Volume transferred and packaged since the last check.
- Cellar loss and packaging loss per batch.
- Any batch flagged for quality review, with who decides and by when.
Per batch matters. A monthly average hides the one batch that went wrong, and that batch is what you want to find.
How much you should hold at all is a separate sum, worked through in working out your reorder points and cover.
Reconciling the count against sales
Set aside an hour and work in this order.
- Beer produced against beer packaged and beer removed.
- Kegs tapped against pours sold plus logged comps and samples.
- Malt, hops and yeast purchased against what the recipes should have consumed.
- Cans, ends, labels and crowns purchased against units packaged.
- Write the unexplained remainder for every line, in the same file, each month.
Step five is the whole exercise. One month of variance is noise. Twelve months of the same variance points at a cause, and a sudden jump tells you when something changed.
Monthly reconciliation order
- Beer produced against packaged and removed
- Kegs tapped against pours, comps, samples
- Raw materials purchased against recipe use
- Packaging purchased against units produced
- Write the unexplained remainder every month
Federal obligations attach to beer produced and beer removed, so one file can serve management and filings. Begin with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: brewery and brewpub page.
Retention periods differ by regulator. They sit inside what your license actually requires of you, so ask each body for its own schedule.
The general principle is in the Internal Revenue Service: what kind of records should I keep? guidance. Choose your own system, provided it shows income and expenses and the supporting documents survive.
Six ordinary causes of variance
Work through these before anyone says theft.
- A part keg counted as full.
- A product name that differs between the cellar sheet and the point of sale.
- Samples, staff pours or a festival pour that nobody logged.
- A line pulled after a keg change.
- A delivery received but never entered.
- A batch packaged into a different keg size than recorded.
Most unexplained variance in a small taproom is one of those six. Fix the process, then see whether the number survives the next two counts.
Storage, rotation and the reorder line
Do these on the same walk, since you are already in the cooler.
- Cold storage temperatures recorded, not glanced at.
- Oldest stock reachable first.
- Nothing on the floor, nothing blocking a walkway or an exit.
- Chemicals stored apart from anything consumable.
- Where food is served, separation and labeling checked against the code your state adopted, listed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: state retail and food service codes page.
Rotation is the cheapest control here and the first one dropped. Compare each line with its reorder point, order early where a line is close, and write the reason on the sheet. Lead times sit with how to review the suppliers you already use.
