Your brewery runs on more than great beer. It needs great processes too

Great beer will always be at the heart of every successful brewery. The creativity behind recipes, the quality of ingredients, and the attention to detail that goes into every batch are what customers see, taste and remember.

But anyone working in a brewery knows there is a whole operation behind every pint.

Ingredients need ordering. Recipes need managing. Batches need planning. Stock needs tracking. Orders need fulfilling. Deliveries need organising. And across it all, the whole team needs to know what is happening.

Great beer might be what customers notice first, but great processes are what help breweries keep everything moving behind the scenes.

Why brewery processes matter

Every brewery has its own way of working.

For many teams, processes are built naturally over time. A spreadsheet is created to manage production planning. A checklist is introduced to keep track of daily tasks. A document is created because someone needed a better way to organise information.

Those processes exist because they solved a problem, and for a while, they often work really well.

But breweries are busy places. Over time, teams change, production changes, customer demand changes, and the amount of information being managed increases.

The systems that once saved time can sometimes start creating extra admin.

Information gets entered in multiple places. Teams have to search for updates. Different people rely on different documents. Important knowledge sits with one or two people who simply “know how things work”.

That experience is incredibly valuable, but the brewery still needs to keep moving when someone is busy, away, or when new people join the team.

Good processes help make that knowledge accessible to everyone.

Creating better visibility across your brewery

A brewery is made up of connected decisions.

A change to the production schedule can impact ingredient requirements, stock availability, sales conversations and deliveries. When teams do not have clear visibility, small questions can quickly take more time than they should.

What are we brewing next?
Do we have everything we need for upcoming batches?
What stock will be available for customers?
Has packaging been planned?
Where was that information recorded?

Having one clear place for teams to find the answers helps everyone work together.

How DEYA Brewing Company manages production planning

DEYA Brewing Company, based in Cheltenham, is known for its fresh, hop-forward beers.

Behind the scenes, their team uses Breww to help manage production planning, scheduling and day-to-day brewery processes.

For Production Manager Elliot Sutherland, having visibility over what is happening now and what is coming next is an important part of keeping everything running smoothly.

“We set out our schedule two months in advance, so we decide on what beers we're going to brew. Off the back of that we create recipes, and in Breww create the beer name, create the products, and schedule everything using the batch scheduling feature.”

Having that forward view helps the team plan ahead and keep information connected throughout the brewery.

Moving away from spreadsheets and paper processes

Changing the way a brewery works can feel like a big step.

Many spreadsheets, documents and paper processes have been created by people who understand the brewery inside out. They have often been adapted and improved over years to fit exactly how the team works.

The goal is not to remove that knowledge. It is to make it easier for everyone to access and build on.

For DEYA, moving away from separate spreadsheets and reducing paper-based processes became an important part of improving the way the team worked.

“With any new system, it's quite daunting at the start. But everyone's bought into it and we've been able to move away from all the external spreadsheets, which is great.”

The team also changed how they managed many of their everyday production processes.

“Previously, all of our briefings, all of our check sheets, were on paper. Now we are, I would say, 95% paperless, which is really good.”

By bringing more information together, the team created a simpler way to manage the day-to-day work happening across the brewery.

Better processes mean more time focused on beer

Great brewery management is not about replacing the people behind the beer.

It is about supporting them.

The knowledge, creativity and experience of your team are what make your brewery unique. Better processes simply help protect that knowledge and make it easier to share.

When teams spend less time searching for information, updating multiple systems, or chasing answers, they have more time to focus on the things that matter.

Improving recipes.
Supporting customers.
Planning ahead.
And making great beer.

Learn more about how DEYA use Breww to streamline processes here:

Find a better way to manage your brewery

Every brewery works differently, which is why finding the right brewery management software matters.

Breww helps breweries bring production, inventory, sales, deliveries, reporting and more together in one easy-to-use platform, giving teams better visibility across their entire operation.

Create your free Breww test account today and explore the platform in your own time.

No pressure. No commitment. Just a chance to see how Breww could work for your brewery.