Brewery Software for batch tracking and recipe management

Batch traceability in brewing works similarly to almost all other industries that use traceability, which is the process of tracking every single ingredient and product through the brewing process and beyond. 

This is usually achieved with brewery inventory management software that has end-to-end traceability, allowing you to connect your raw ingredient batches (your hops, malt, or yeast) to specific production runs, and have those runs linked together with a packaged final good (your kegs, cans, or bottles). 

So, when you implement a solution like Sutton, your ingredients are assigned lot numbers that identify the supplier and key information about that batch of ingredients. Once those ingredients enter production, that production run is directly tied to the batch that will be produced. So, finally, once you have a finished product and it’s ready to be sold to a customer, that lot number helps you identify who the product was sold to and where it ended up. 

What this means is that if something should happen and you believe the quality of the batch to be compromised, you can pinpoint the batches that are affected and take the necessary steps to retrieve that inventory. 

Batch genealogy records are documents that detail the complete history of how a specific batch of product was made, showing you information to give you a clear picture of how the production went, including: 

• All the ingredients that were used 
• The operational or process steps it went through
• The outcome of the production run 

If you implement brewery business management software like Sutton, these records are created by connecting your: 

• Bill of materials (BOM)
• Production activity
• Inventory movements

Sutton also supports multi-level BOMs, which show you more complex relationships within the brewing process. Intermediate stages like wort or yeast preparation can be tied back to their original inputs while still connecting forward to the final packaged product. A key part of this record is also comparing what was planned versus what actually happened by tracking actual material usage, yield, and variance, so you can see how closely each batch followed its intended recipe.

Craft breweries track grain and hop inventory by connecting purchasing, storage, and production in one system, so every movement of raw materials is recorded and reflected in real time.

With Sutton, breweries can see exactly how much grain and hops they have on hand, where those materials are stored, and how they are being used across batches. Inventory levels update automatically as ingredients are received, moved between locations, or consumed in production. Sutton supports multi-location and bin-level tracking, so breweries can manage materials across warehouses, cold storage, or production areas in a single view.

As brewing begins, grain and hops are allocated to production through manufacturing orders and bills of materials, which define exactly what is required for each batch. As the batch progresses, the system tracks actual material usage and automatically reduces inventory based on what was consumed. Barcode scanning improves accuracy further by allowing teams to record movements instantly, reducing the risk of errors from manual input.

Sutton also helps breweries plan ahead by aligning inventory with demand. With a unified view of on-hand stock, incoming supply, and production needs, teams can set reorder points, maintain safety stock, and generate suggested purchase orders, helping you and your team prevent shortages while avoiding excess inventory.

Because inventory, production, and purchasing data are all linked, breweries gain better visibility into usage, costs, and performance, so they always have the right ingredients for the next brew.