Brew Up Your Profits: Mastering Draft Beer Efficiency w/ John Childress (BarTrack)

Draft beer is one of the most profitable items for a brewery, but it’s also one of the most difficult to track and manage. Draft beer is a high-volume product with a relatively low cost, but it���s also susceptible to losses due to poor inventory management, theft, overpouring, foam, and line cleanliness. Over time, this can add up to a substantial amount of money that could have been made if that beer had been sold. This is why tracking draft beer loss is so important. To maximize profits, brewery owners and manager must stay on top of their draft beer loss tracking.

Draft beer loss tracking requires brewery owners to measure the amount of beer they pour vs. the amount they are selling. If the amount of beer they pour exceeds the amount sold, it indicates that there is a loss somewhere in the process. It could be due to many contributing factors.

The key to successful draft beer loss tracking is to track each keg from the time it’s filled until the time it’s empty. Previously, this could have involved manually recording the number of pints poured from each keg and comparing it to the amount of beer sold to identify any discrepancies. This will only get a brewery so far as this technique is extremely time consuming and more importantly, does not identify where and when the loss has occurred.

In this discussion, we'll break down the most prominent causes of draft loss and discuss basic waste-reduction measures. We'll also talk about how cutting-edge technology is transforming the way breweries can maximize their time and efficiencies with only a few minutes a day.

My name is Jon Childress, and I work as the Director of Brewery Partnerships at BarTrack. I've been working in craft beverage technology for the past 5 years and recently joined the BarTrack team to educate the brewing industry on how important our firm is in terms of blending technology and brewing operations.

Previously, I worked at Next Glass, where I helped hundreds of brewers around the country develop D2C strategies, brewery system management software, bottle society and membership advice, marketing campaigns, and much more. I was the initial hire for the team at CraftCellr, which is now known as Oznr under the Next Glass umbrella.

BarTrack is a system that keeps track of all keg consumption, beer sold, and beer wasted at the tap. This data is captured in real time and is easily accessible via a web-based dashboard. This information can then be used to discover patterns of beer waste and make adjustments to guarantee that more beer is sold and less is wasted. Brewery owners and managers can also use BarTrack to effortlessly track inventory, identify trends, and modify pricing to maximize profitability.

Join us in-person for CBP Connects | Half workshop, half networking
Milwaukee, WI | June 19-21, 2023