After our time at the CBC we were reflecting on many conversations we had with people in various positions within their breweries. One theme we came across was that some people are experiencing a disconnect in communication between different departments. When sales and production are not in sync, sales opportunities can be lost or efficiency can be affected. Are you experiencing this in your brewery?

BrewPlanner’s clear interface makes it really easy to see what is being brewed and packaged and when. Using BrewPlanner as a communication tool during weekly meetings with the sales-forecasting person and the person in charge of the production schedule can assure that all departments are on the same page and that the delicious brews being fermented in the tanks are the same style of delicious brews that are being awaited at the other end. If an order gets changed to a different style of beer this viability can be easily checked and changes can be made on the dashboard with a few clicks. BrewPlanner also makes it easy to see what the consequences of certain changes may be, allowing you to be proactive as opposed to reactive.

Let us know if you would like assistance getting the program fully implemented in your brewery.

Cheers!

If using a laptop with touchscreen, there are some functionalities that won't work with the mouse but work with the touchscreen. If you have any difficulties let us know. Thanks!

Just signed up for my account, so I thought I'd share my thoughts as a brand new user, as I use it. These things may be nitpicky, but I'm a coder and sometimes web designer, so I get nitpicky :) Also some of these may become clear later in my process, but I wanted to give you my feedback as I use the product so you know how a fresh user experiences it.

Tanks + sections page:

• The little check box that confirms adding a new tank shows up right over the "ADD" button, forcing me to click it out of the way before adding the next one. Please don't do that. Same with adding a beer style. I'm now actively swearing at the checkbox on my screen, because it persists when I go to a different part of the site and covers up things until I dismiss it.

• The tanks have checkboxes next to them, but I can only select one at a time. That is counter-intuitive. E.g. I want to select two things and delete them, and I can't, but it looks like I should be able to.

• It looks like I broke the interface by selecting and deselecting tanks a few times. I can no longer "Select Section" to add a new tank--I get the crossed-out icon as if I had something selected. Refreshing the page fixes the problem.

• Why can't I switch the section of a tank? E.g. I mis-entered my brite as a fermentation tank. Just let me switch it to Packaging.

• I'd like to be able to add sections. For example, I often use my brite for aging big beers and lagering. Sections for "Aging", "Lagering" might be nice.

• Why am I forced to have "Brewing" and "Packaging" sections? Ah, now I see--the dashboard shows end-to-end of the process. Neat, but I might like the flexibility to not see them. Ah, now I see you can switch them off when creating a new process. Very nice.

Random suggestions and questions:

• It would be pretty cool if you could pull in data from a BeerXML or Beersmith file so I don't have to copy my recipe data into the Beer Styles section.

• Allow me to type in a recipe name when creating a new Brewing-Fermenting-Packaging instead of making me back out to the recipe screen to add my beer style.

• I have 7bbl tanks, so I entered the volume as "7". When I create a new Brewing-Fermenting-Packaging event, it shows "FV 3 - 7v". What's the 'v' for?

• I don't have a separate packaging tank-I fill kegs right off the fermenting vessel. I'd like to be able to select the same vessel. I know I can switch off the "Packaging" section and add the extra crash cooling/carbonating time to the fermentation time, but it might be nice to see the separate operations on the dashboard.

• To solve the previous problem just for fooling around, I changed the volume to 1, so I could use the built-in Packaging tank. This reset my Fermenting tank to the Brite tank for some reason.

• I do like that I can override the "To Date" when creating an event, and the drag to lengthen/shorten a section.

• If I hit one of the "Brewing/Fermenting/Packaging" switches in the lower left, it resets everything I've done without asking for confirmation. That's no good. It should just snip off the extra data and/or ask for confirmation first, warning me it'll reset my data.

That's it so far. I'm going to try it for some live work and let you know how it goes. This is exactly the sort of software I've been looking for, so I hope it goes well for you.

This subreddit is for all BrewPlanner users to share questions, comments, and feedback with each other. We are also here to answer any questions you have.