Three brands in one brewhouse
Your own beers take most of the brewhouse, and contract brews for two or three gypsy brands fill the rest. Each client sends a recipe, sometimes updated by email a week before the brew. Their printed cans arrive on your site and sit next to yours. One client wants kegs collected by their own courier, another wants pallets sent to a distributor. The invoice needs the brew, the packaging, the dry goods you supplied and the storage days.
It all lives in email threads with each client, plus notes on the whiteboard and a spreadsheet the owner keeps.
Why contract work gets messy
Your brewery system is set up for your own beers. Client beers either get squeezed into it awkwardly or run outside it. Client-owned dry goods are not yours, so nobody counts them properly. Recipe changes arrive by email and may or may not reach the brew sheet. Clients ask where their beer is by email, and someone has to go and look.
- Client recipes change by email, close to brew day.
- Client-owned cans and labels are mixed with yours.
- Brew and packaging dates are confirmed in threads.
- Clients ask for updates the office has to look up.
- Invoices are built by hand from several sources.
Where it costs you
A brew on an old recipe version is the nightmare: the client's beer, made wrong, with their name on it. More often, the cost is time: chasing approvals, answering status emails, working out storage charges, and building invoices that miss something. Using a client's cans for your beer or the other way round is an expensive mistake that nobody notices until the count is wrong.
There is a capacity question too. Contract brews take fermenter time that your own beers might need, and without a record of what each job actually used, in vessel days, packaging time and storage, it is hard to say whether a client is paying their way or quietly crowding out your own range.
A job record per contract brew
- Each client has an account with their approved recipes, each with a version number and approval date.
- A contract brew job is created from an approved recipe version, so a change needs a new approval before it reaches the brew-day log.
- Client-owned dry goods are booked in on arrival and kept as that client's stock, drawn down when their beer is packaged.
- The job holds brew date, fermenter, packaging date, QC results and the collection or delivery instructions.
- A client portal shows each of their jobs, current stage, QC figures you choose to share, their dry goods stock and documents.
- When a job completes, the invoice is drafted in Xero from the job: brewing, packaging, your materials used, storage days and any extras.
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Recipe version | Latest email | Approved version on the job |
| Client dry goods | Mixed with yours | Held as client stock |
| Status updates | Emails to the office | Client portal |
| QC results | Sent by email | Shared on the job |
| Invoice | Built by hand | Drafted from the job |
What contract clients notice
They can see their beer's progress without emailing. Recipe changes go through a clear approval, which protects both of you. Their cans are counted as theirs. Invoices arrive quickly and match the work. For you, contract brews stop taking a disproportionate share of the office's week, and the owner can see which clients are worth the capacity they use.
Is this your contract brewing?
- Client recipes change by email close to brew day.
- Client dry goods are not counted separately.
- Clients email to ask where their beer is.
- Contract invoices are built by hand.
- Storage charges are often forgotten.