The Breww Basics
First you need a Breww subscription (or demo account) and be signed into the Dashboard. If you've not got an account yet, please register now. The guide will explain how to get started with Breww and make it work for your business.
Production
-
Fermenters and Brite Tanks
- Go to the
Production
section using the main menu, scroll to the bottom and clickNew Vessel
in the Vessels section. - Beers - Can be set-up from
Production → New Beer
. - Recipes - Can be set-up from
Production → Recipes → New Recipe
.
Containers
-
Container Types
-
Firkin
andPin
are automatically added, but any other Container Types you sell in can be added here. Just go toContainers → New Container Type
and fill in the form. -
Containers
- Any containers that you track can be added here, just click
Add Containers
. After that you can then print their permanent barcode labels from your Thermal Transfer printer and stick them on to each container to allow for quick barcode scanning of rackings and deliveries.
Inventory and Products
- Ingredients can be set-up in the
Inventory
section underNew Stock Item
. - Your stock quantities and prices can then be added through
Inventory Receipts → New Inventory Receipt
. For existing stock quantities just add anInventory Receipt
with a reference ofInitial Stock
. - Products in Breww sit as a layer above your stock and packaged beer that you create. They are effectively
just a name and a standard price that points at the packaged beer that need to be delivered for it. This
allows you to sell the same packaged beer under multiple different names or easily create mixed packs. To
set them up just go to
Products → New Product
. Most products are created automatically throughout your use of Breww though, so actually you rarely have to set them up yourself. - Products in Breww are very flexible. If your product is a beer that you will package, then simply point
the product at the beer and the container type that you are packaging it in.
You can do this by editing the
Component packaged beers
part of the product form. If you have mixed packs that you sell, no problem! Just include all the beers in your mixed pack in theComponent packaged beers
section. For other types of products, you can edit theComponent stock items
to let Breww know what stock items need to be delivered when the product is sold. Or leave both sections blank and Breww will know that the product is a service, rather than a physical product. Products don't have to be unique. This allows you to sell the same packaged beer under multiple different names. To set up your products just go toProducts → New Product
. Most packaged beer products are created automatically throughout your use of Breww though, so you rarely have to set them up yourself. - When creating the packaged beers in Breww that you already have sitting in your brewery, you'll want to simply
create the historical gyle in the system and rack it into the products that the beer is in. We recommend
leaving a note on these gyles when closing them (at the bottom of the
Production → Transfer
Screen) to say that they were added historically and might not represent the entire Gyle (just so you know in the event of an audit not to fully rely on them).
Settings
- Go through the
Settings
section of the menu to make sure you're happy with the defaults! -
Order/invoice settings
allows you to add your bank details, logo, etc. -
Delivery settings
allow you to set a default weekly delivery day as a backup in the event no delivery areas are set-up. Here you can also specify if you would like auto-assignment for smallpack products turned off. -
Sites
allows you to set a multiple warehouses that you might have, and locations within those warehouses. For those who want to know where all stock is at all times, or who need to track beer duty of bonded to non-bonded transfers.
Let's get into a little more detail
Keep reading for more detailed explanations on other parts of the system which you should be aware of as you get started with Breww.
Purchasing, Stock and Ingredients
Creating Stock Items
To create a Stock Item, go to Inventory → New Stock Item
and complete the form. If you
would
like the batches of your stock item to be tracked when received and throughout the production
process (recommended for Ingredients), select Yes
under Track Batches?
. This option
cannot be changed after the item has been created.
Updating Stock
Stock in Breww is added through Inventory Receipts. To record the receipt of new stock, go
to Inventory → Inventory Receipts → New Inventory Receipt
. You will then be able to
record the
supplier of the stock, the delivery date and any reference (usually the PO reference).
Then on the Inventory Receipt Edit
screen you can input which items were received, how
much and the price per unit of measurement (e.g. for Grain
, price per kilo). If the item is batch
tracked, the inventory receipt will then require the batch numbers and expiry dates of the
items received. Click the green +
symbol next to the item line and enter this
information.
At the bottom of the Inventory Receipt Edit
screen is the additional costs section.
This allows you to record the delivery costs of the goods, in order to receive more accurate cost reports.
When you are ready to move this stock from draft status into inventory, click onto the Inventory
Receipt Detail
screen at the top, ensure the details are correct, and then click
Post
. This will move the draft stock into your inventory.
Ingredient Recall
If you ever have a supplier call to warn of a contaminated ingredient that needs to be recalled you can use the
Ingredient Recall functionality. Go to Inventory → Ingredient Recall
and simply enter
the Batch Code and Ingredient and Breww will find every Gyle, Cask, Keg and Bottle that’s been filled with beer
created from that ingredient batch.
Production
Creating a Beer
To create a new Beer, go to Production → New Beer
and then fill out the form. At the
bottom is the Containers Packaged In
section. This is where you specify which Container Types you
will package this beer in, and will automatically create the corresponding Packaged Beers and Products for this
beer. This can also be created later (see Create Packaged Beer, or Create Products).
Creating a Recipe
After you have created a beer, you may want to create a Recipe so that Breww is able to automatically generate
ingredient lists for your Gyles when they are created, or calculate stock required for your Gyle plan. To create
a Recipe go to Production → Recipes → New Recipe
, enter the initial details and click
Create New Recipe
. After it is created you can then add the ingredients for the given
batch size. These are then scaled up or down as necessary when creating a Gyle from the recipe. Make sure to
assign the Recipe to the Beer, so that Breww allows you to brew a Gyle of the beer from this recipe.
Planning and Starting a Gyle
Breww allows you to create Gyles in a Planned
state before starting them. To plan a Gyle go to
Production → New Batch
. Then fill in the details of the planned Gyle.
When you are ready to start this Gyle, go to Production → View All Batches
and click
on the Gyle number and then click the green Start Batch
button at the top right of the
screen. Breww will then ask how much you have/will create and where you have/will move the beer. It will only
show available vessels. Breww will then start the Gyle and if there was a recipe assigned it will automatically
pull ingredients and their batches from Inventory on a First In First Out (FIFO) basis. This can be used to pick
ingredients from the ingredients storage for the brew, or edited to reflect which batches of ingredients and
quantities were actually used.
Racking
Racking can be done from either Vessels
or Full Containers
. To rack from a vessel, go
to Production → Racking
. You then have the options of Racking from Scanner Input,
Manually, or to Smallpack.
Racking to Cask or Keg from Vessels
If you are using Scanner Input, you must first scan all the Reusable casks you have racked into (remember to
scan the Clear
barcode first to empty the scanner of your previous scanner data). Then choose which
Vessel you have racked from, click on the scanner box, and scan the Transmit
barcode on your
scanner. The scanner input will then transmit and fill the box. When racking you must choose which Product
you are racking into. If you have racked into multiple product types and scanned them all don’t worry, Breww will
ignore scanned Casks and Kegs that are not of the specified type. So you don’t have to only scan the Firkins
,
upload them, then go back to scan your Kilderkins
, and then upload them. Scan everything, and use
the same scanner input for each product you create a Racking for. If there are any non-returnables of the
specified container type, enter the number into the Number of Non-Returnables
field.
You are able to also record any volumes lost if you spilled any beer during the process and want it recorded,
otherwise simply enter 0
. There is also a Notes box to record any particular notes about the
Racking so you can refer back to them if you ever need to.
After you have finished racking you will need to print off your Stock Labels. To do this, go to
Production → View All Batches
, click on the Gyle and then click Print
All Gyle Labels
at the top right. This will print off all of the Stock Labels that you will need. After
these have been printed, stick them onto the relevant Casks and Kegs (e.g. if the label has a volume of 39.5L
it will be for a Firkin
).
Racking to Smallpack from Vessels
When racking to Smallpack you can specify whether it was done on-site or whether it was sent for off-site
packaging by a third-party. Click the relevant tab and complete the form. If it is an off-site packaging, you
will then need to return when the Smallpack returns and go to the Smallpack → Received from
off-site Packaging
tab and complete the form.
After a smallpack packaging has been created, it will generate a unique barcode for this packaging that can then
be stuck onto the Smallpack Cases if desired. This can be printed from Production → View All
Batches
, click on the Gyle and then click Print All Gyle Labels
at the top
right.
Racking from Casks or Kegs
To rack from a specific Cask or Keg into another Container, go to Containers → View
All
and select the container you are racking from. Click Rack Container
and
specify what was racked from it and the reasons for any losses (for auditability purposes).
Emptying a Vessel
Once you have completely finished with a Batch and have only trub left, you will need to empty the vessel. Go to
Production → Transfer
and scroll to the bottom and click Empty a
Vessel
. Here simply specify which vessel you are emptying and why the remaining quantity in it is being
scrapped. Then click Empty Vessel
.
Sales
Creating a Product
Products in Breww are very flexible. They represent a quantity of something you have in stock (a Packaged
Beer
or Stock Item
) that you wish to sell. To set up a product go to Products
→ New Product
and give your new product a name, code, price and vat rate. You will then specify what it
is you will be selling when this product is placed on an invoice. For the vast majority of cases this will
simply be one packaged beer (i.e. when I sell a Product called Belgian Blonde – Firkin
, I am
selling one Belgian Blonde
packaged in a Firkin
(the Packaged Beer)).
If the Packaged Beer has not been created yet, simply go to Production → Packaged Beers → New
Packaged Beer
to let Breww know that you intend to package this Packaged Beer
and then
create the product to let Breww know that you wish to sell it. (In many places Breww does this automatically for
you, so there is no need to do anything).
Creating an order
To create an order go to Sales → New order
. This will open a Draft
order
. Add the customer it is for, and the invoice and due dates. Click Update
details
. Then you must specify whether this order will be collected by the customer or delivered to the
customer. On the right of the Order details select the delivery/collection date and click Create
the delivery/collection
.
Now you are ready to add your order items, scroll down to items and add the items to the order. If a
product you expect to see is not there, it either needs to be created or it has been marked as obsolete. After
you have completed the order confirm
it. This way your delivery team know it's ready to go. Don't worry, it can be moved back into draft anytime until it is invoiced. You can manually mark the order as invoiced if you wish,
which will trigger a sync to your accountancy software and make the order uneditable.
Or Breww will automatically mark the order as invoiced once the delivery has left duty suspense.
Creating a Pricebook
Breww supports two different type of Pricebook, a New Pricebook
or a Discount
Pricebook
. A New Pricebook has completely different prices irrespective of any other pricebooks, whilst a
Discount Pricebook sets discount ranges on quantities of products bought.
To create a Pricebook go to Sales → Pricebooks → Create New Pricebook
. The select
either a Discount Pricebook
or New Pricebook
and input the details, and the products
that they should include.
Pricebooks can then be assigned to Customers, Customer Groups or specific Orders.
Deliveries
The Delivery Day
Preparation
When it comes to a delivery day, go to Deliveries
and click on the date. This will
contain all of the deliveries that you have to complete that day.
First the casks must be assigned to the deliveries. On this screen, click on the Items
tab. This will contain all of the Packaged Beers
that you must get out
ready for delivery that day.
After they have been retrieved from the stock room, print your delivery labels from the Print
Labels
button at the top right. For each label check which Product it specifies on the front, and stick
it onto the equivalent Cask or Keg containing that Beer. After each Cask or Keg has a delivery sticker, scan
the barcode on the delivery label and THEN scan the barcode on the cask. This order is very important. Do this
for each Cask or Keg.
Then click on the Scanner Assignment
button on Breww and transmit
the scanner data into Breww (how the scanner transmits depends on your scanner). The box should fill with the scanner data. Then click Assign
. This will then automatically assign each Cask or Keg to each delivery.
When your deliveries are ready to leave the Brewery to be delivered, click Invoice all
confirmed orders
and Mark Delivery Day as Left Duty Suspense
. The beer duty is then
calculated and the deliveries marked as Out for Delivery.
When Out for Delivery
When out for delivery you are able to bring up Breww on your phone and click onto each delivery as you arrive at
the Customer. You can then click Mark Delivery as Complete
and then take a signature
from the customer. Click Order Options → Sign Invoice
and take a signature from the
Customer. Click Confirm Signature → Submit
to save it.
Containers
Creating a New Container Type
You can set-up as many Container Types as you like in Breww. To set them up, go to Container
→ New Container Type
and simply fill in the details.
Creating New Returnable Containers
If you would like to track a container simply give Breww the number of the container and Breww will create it as
a permanent container in your system. Go to Containers → New Container
.
Containers In Trade
To view your containers in trade go to, Containers → Containers in Trade
. Click the
Map View
tab to view them all on a map.
When you need to scan containers back into the Brewery after collecting them. Go to, Containers
→ Return or move containers → Scanner View
and transmit your scanner data up to Breww, click Return
Containers
.
Beer Duty
Beer Duty Return
Your current and historical beer duty returns can be found in the Beer Duty section. Click on
Beer Duty → View Current Return
to view your current return and click
View Beer Duty Breakdown
to view a breakdown of everything that went into that return.