Brewery software is rarely one product. Production planning, the taproom till, menus and keg tracking are usually separate jobs, and only some tools try to cover several at once. Tax and duty reporting also varies by country, so check what a tool files where you brew. Seven options follow, in no particular order.
Ask five brewers what software they use and you'll often get five different answers, because they're each solving a different problem. One wants to stop fermenters sitting empty, another wants the taproom till to cope on a Saturday, a third just wants to know where two hundred kegs went.
So this list is sorted in your head by job, even though the entries below run alphabetically and in no particular order. Every description comes from the vendor's own website, as of Nov 2026.
Brewery tools by type
| Tool | Type | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Arryved | Taproom POS and brewery platform | Taproom service with production tools alongside |
| BeerBoard | Beverage management for venues | Tracking draft pours against till sales |
| Brewfather | Brewing and batch app | Recipe design and fermentation tracking |
| BrewPlanner | Production planning software | Batch scheduling and fermenter planning |
| Breww | Brewery management software | Production, stock, sales and duty in one system |
| KegID | Keg tracking software | Knowing where every keg is |
| Taplist.io | Digital menu tool | Tap lists on screens, QR codes and print |
Seven brewery software tools
Arryved
Best for: Breweries with a busy taproom that want a mobile-first POS with offline capability, plus production planning, inventory and wholesale sales tools.
BeerBoard
Best for: Bars and restaurants serving draft beer that want pours measured in real time and compared with POS sales to show overpours and waste, as its page claims.
Brewfather
Best for: Small brewers who want recipe design, guided brew days and live fermentation data, with lot numbers and best-before dates for traceability; commercial use allowed.
BrewPlanner
Best for: Production teams in breweries or wineries who want drag-and-drop batch scheduling, recipes and a dashboard of fermenter availability and raw material levels.
Breww
Best for: Breweries wanting production, stock, sales, distribution and reporting together, with keg and cask scanning, a B2B trade store and duty returns built in.
KegID
Best for: Anyone losing track of kegs, since it scans kegs by smartphone to show where they are and how long they've been out of the brewery.
Taplist.io
Best for: Taprooms wanting one menu that updates TV boards, web and QR menus and printed menus at once, syncing with the POS when a tap changes.
Match the tool to the brewery job
- Plan and brew. BrewPlanner and Brewfather sit at the production end: batch schedules, recipes, fermentation and traceability. The first is about keeping tanks and materials planned; the second starts from the recipe and the brew day.
- Run the whole brewery. Breww aims to join production, stock, sales, distribution and duty reporting in one system, including keg and cask scanning.
- Serve and sell. Arryved starts from the taproom till and adds brewery management on top. Taplist.io keeps your tap list right on every screen and printed menu.
- Pours and kegs. BeerBoard leans towards bars and restaurants that pour draft, measuring what goes out of the tap against what's rung up. KegID does one thing: keg logistics.
A tool that's strong at one job is rarely the answer to all four, and that's fine. Plenty of breweries run a production tool, a till and a menu tool side by side. What matters is that they talk to each other, or at least that you're not typing the same beer in three places.
Excise, duty and filing: check what the software does where you brew
This is where a good demo can mislead you. Tax and duty reporting for beer depends on the country, and sometimes the state, so a tool that files neatly in one place may do nothing for you in another.
In the US, the TTB, the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, lists excise tax returns alongside formula and label approvals in the taxes and filing section of its beer industry page. UK breweries deal with duty under a different system entirely. I'm not giving tax advice here: the rules vary, so check with your own regulator what you need to file, then ask each vendor to show you exactly which reports it produces for your jurisdiction.
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If your taproom is really a bar
Plenty of taprooms run more like a bar than a production site. If that's you, my list of the best bar POS systems covers general hospitality tills, and the guide to bar inventory software covers stock counts behind the bar. Neither replaces production planning, but they may be the better fit for the front of house.
Questions to ask a brewery software vendor
- Which job is the tool built for first: production, taproom, menus or kegs?
- Which reports does it produce for tax or duty in my country, and can I see one?
- Does it connect to the till, the menu tool or the accounts software I already use?
- Can it track kegs and casks, or will I need a separate tool for that?
- Does it work offline if the taproom internet drops?
- Can I export my recipes, batches and sales history if I leave?
Do you make brewery or taproom software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice for brewers choosing software
Start with the job that's hurting most, not the tool that promises everything. If tanks are your bottleneck, sort production planning first. If Saturday service is chaos, fix the till. If kegs keep vanishing, keg tracking pays for itself in sanity. Then check the tax side early, because a tool that can't produce what your regulator needs will eat hours every month in spreadsheets.
And keep the number of places you type a beer's name to a minimum. Every duplicate entry is a mistake waiting to happen.
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Frequently asked questions
What is brewery software?
It's software for running a brewery: production planning, recipes, stock, sales, taproom service, menus or keg tracking. Some tools cover several of these, many cover one.
Do I need one system or several?
It depends on size and setup. Many breweries use separate tools for production, the taproom till and menus. Just check they connect so you're not entering data twice.
Can brewery software handle excise or duty reporting?
Some tools say they produce duty or tax reports, but rules vary by country and state. Check what your regulator needs and ask the vendor to show the exact report.
What is keg tracking software?
It records where each keg is, often by scanning it with a phone, so you know which customers have kegs and how long they've been out.
Is a bar POS good enough for a brewery taproom?
For a taproom that runs like a bar, it can be. If you also need production and wholesale tools, a brewery-built platform may save you running two systems.
Is there brewery software for small or new breweries?
Yes. Some brewing apps allow commercial use and cover recipes, batches and traceability, which suits a small or new brewery before it needs a full system.
