What is the recommended Craft Beer Brewery sales and operations tech stack in 2027?

Direct Answer

A craft beer brewery in 2027 runs on a stack split between production (brewhouse, cellar, packaging, compliance) and commerce (taproom, distribution data, loyalty, DTC). The marquee apps are Ekos Brewmaster (now part of Next Glass) or OrchestratedBEER for brewery ERP and batch tracking, Arryved for the taproom point of sale, Untappd for Business for loyalty and beer menus, VIP (Vermont Information Processing) or Datisfy for distributor depletion data, Shopify with Craftpeak for DTC and merch, Klaviyo for email and SMS, and QuickBooks Online or NetSuite for finance.

Everything else is supporting cast: HR, payroll, marketing, and IT.

Why the Craft Beer Brewery Stack Works Differently

A craft beer brewery is not a generic food-and-beverage manufacturer, and four mechanics force a brewery-native stack rather than the generic NetSuite plus Toast footprint a restaurant group would use.

1. The brewery is a regulated batch manufacturer. Every batch has a recipe, a brew date, a fermentation profile, a packaging run, and a TTB filing. The Brewer's Report of Operations (BROP), excise tax returns, and state excise reports pull directly from batch records, so the production ERP has to be a real MES with TTB-aware reporting. Generic accounting plus a spreadsheet cannot survive a TTB audit.

1. Three-tier distribution governs everything outside the taproom. Once beer leaves the brewery dock, it goes to a wholesaler (Reyes, Manhattan Beer, Ben E. Keith, regional Anheuser-Busch or Molson Coors networks) and then to retailers and on-premise. The brewery never sees the retailer transaction directly; it sees depletion data from VIP or Datisfy and scan data from Circana or NielsenIQ. Sales analytics live in that file, not in a CRM.

1. The taproom is a hospitality business with brewery-specific service. Flights, growlers, crowlers, self-pour walls, mug clubs, and beer-then-food ordering need a POS that understands tabs, partial pours, keg-level inventory, and producer-side allocation. Toast and Square sort of work; Arryved was designed for it and dominates the category.

1. The beer brand lives on Untappd. Drinkers rate and check in beers on Untappd in numbers no other category sees, and Untappd for Business has become the de-facto digital beer menu, loyalty platform, and direct ad channel for craft beer. A brewery that ignores Untappd is invisible to the demographic that drives style trends.

The Core Stack, Layer by Layer

This is the recommended set of products by functional layer. The count is reality-driven; layers that do not apply at a craft brewery are skipped.

Brewery ERP & Batch Production — Ekos Brewmaster (Next Glass) or OrchestratedBEER (Orchestra Software). This is the production spine. Ekos handles recipes, brew schedules, fermentation tracking, inventory, raw materials, packaging, sales orders, and BROP-ready reporting; it serves over 2,000 craft producers and was acquired by Next Glass (the parent of Untappd, Ollie, Oznr) in late 2025 with a two-year price freeze for existing customers.

OrchestratedBEER is the SAP Business One-based alternative favored by larger regional breweries that want true ERP underneath. Expect Ekos at roughly $300-$1,200+/month by tier; OrchestratedBEER lands higher at $2,000-$8,000+/month plus implementation. Smaller brewpubs sometimes run Beer30 or Ollie Ops (also Next Glass) at the entry tier.

Taproom & Brewpub POS — Arryved (brewery-specific), with Toast for food-heavy brewpubs and Square at the smallest taprooms. Arryved is taproom-native: open tabs, partial pours, flight builds, keg-level depletion, and an Arryved Insider mug-club tier that prints membership cards and runs loyalty natively.

Arryved merchants opened ~35 million tabs in 2025. Pricing is generally bundled hardware-plus-software in the $150-$400/location/month range plus payment processing. Toast at $69-$165/month/terminal plus processing is the right call if the brewpub is more food than beer.

Square is the fallback for tiny taprooms where simplicity wins.

Recipe, Lab & Quality — Ekos recipe module plus BeerSmith for R&D, OrchestratedBEER quality module, with Brewer's Lab or VeriCog for bigger labs. Pilot batches and recipe iteration usually live in BeerSmith (about $30/year, single-seat). Production recipe execution lives in Ekos or OrchestratedBEER.

QC labs at regional breweries add VeriCog or in-house LIMS, with cell counts, dissolved oxygen, and pH integrated to batch records. Quality cost lands at $0-$500/month for small operators and several thousand at scale.

Compliance & TTB Filings — Ekos or OrchestratedBEER built-in BROP and excise filing, with TTBgov direct for tax returns. The TTB Brewer's Report of Operations and federal excise tax return (TTB Form 5130.9 and 5000.24) generate from the production ERP. State excise filings, distribution permits, and label approval (TTB COLA) round it out.

There is no separate compliance product for most breweries; the ERP does it.

Packaging Line & MES — Wonderware (AVEVA System Platform) or Ignition by Inductive Automation at regional and larger breweries. Once a brewery runs a high-speed bottling or canning line, the line itself needs SCADA and MES to track downtime, fill-volume QC, and lot codes that flow to the ERP.

Wonderware/AVEVA is the legacy standard; Ignition is the cheaper, more modern competitor. Spend is project-based starting at $30,000+ plus integration; below regional scale most breweries do not have this layer.

Distribution Data & Depletions — VIP (Vermont Information Processing) supplier portal, Datisfy, and Encompass Insights. Once beer is in distribution, the brewery sees inventory and depletions through the wholesaler's VIP or Encompass system feeding a supplier portal. Datisfy aggregates depletion data across multiple wholesalers into one analytics layer and has become a craft-brand standard.

Datisfy lands at $500-$3,500+/month by wholesaler count and SKU volume.

Off-Premise Scan & Brand Health — Circana (formerly IRI), NielsenIQ, plus Untappd brand analytics. Scan data tells the brewery what is happening in chain grocery and convenience; Untappd tells it what is happening in drinker sentiment and style trends. Larger craft brands subscribe to a scoped Circana or NielsenIQ feed at $2,000-$15,000+/month; smaller brands rely on Datisfy plus Untappd.

CRM — HubSpot for chain-account and distributor-relationship management, with Salesforce at regional and larger breweries. Most craft breweries do not need a heavyweight CRM because the wholesaler owns the retail relationship, but a chain-account manager covering Total Wine, Kroger, and Whole Foods needs HubSpot or Salesforce to track meetings, programming commitments, and chain reviews.

HubSpot at roughly $90-$150/user/month; Salesforce at $165/user/month Enterprise.

Loyalty, Membership & Mug Club — Untappd for Business plus Arryved Insider. Untappd for Business runs the digital beer menu, push notifications to local check-in users, and brewery-level analytics; it has become a default channel for new-release announcements. Arryved Insider handles the in-taproom mug club: tiered membership, card-on-file pours, and ROI tracking.

Untappd for Business starts at roughly $59-$300+/location/month; Arryved Insider is a module on top of Arryved POS.

E-Commerce & DTC — Shopify with Craftpeak as the brewery-specific theme and ordering layer. State-by-state DTC beer shipping is more limited than wine, but in-state delivery, click-and-collect, merch, and gift cards still run on Shopify. Craftpeak is the brewery-purpose-built Shopify theme and ordering layer used by Sierra Nevada, Founders, and dozens of regional breweries; it adds release-drop scheduling, allocation, and waitlist mechanics.

Shopify at $39-$2,300/month plus Craftpeak setup and licensing.

Marketing — Klaviyo for email and SMS, Untappd ad platform for in-app reach, Meta and Reddit for paid social. Klaviyo plugged into Shopify is the standard email and SMS engine at $45-$1,000+/month by list size. Untappd's brewery ad platform is the only place to reach craft-beer drinkers in the act of choosing a beer.

Meta Ads and Reddit handle geo-targeted awareness for taproom traffic and release drops.

Finance & Accounting — QuickBooks Online Advanced at small and mid breweries, NetSuite at regional and larger. Ekos and OrchestratedBEER integrate to QuickBooks or NetSuite for GL, AP, and consolidation. QuickBooks Online Advanced at roughly $235/month covers most breweries under ~$10M revenue; NetSuite at $1,500-$6,000+/month kicks in past that.

HR & Payroll — Gusto for small, Rippling for fast-growth, ADP at the largest. Brewers, packagers, cellar staff, sales reps, and taproom servers all need different payroll classes and tip handling. Gusto at $40-$80/employee/month is the small-brewery default; Rippling at $8-$40/employee/month plus modules suits multi-location growth; ADP Workforce Now serves regional and larger breweries.

Layers deliberately skipped: there is no need for a separate inventory system outside Ekos or OrchestratedBEER, no separate trade-spend platform at most breweries (the wholesaler manages it), and no custom data warehouse until the brewery is well past regional scale.

Real Operators & What They Run

Public footprints, vendor case studies, and industry reporting point to the following stacks at named brewers.

• Sierra Nevada Brewing — operates at the top end of independent craft: an SAP-class ERP underneath the brewhouse and packaging lines, a strong DTC presence on Shopify with Craftpeak, an active Untappd for Business presence, and Arryved at the Mills River and Chico hospitality operations.
• New Belgium Brewing (Lion Little World Beverages) — runs an SAP ERP under parent Lion plus modern brewery MES on the lines, Arryved-class POS at brewpubs, and a long-standing Klaviyo-powered fan list.
• Stone Brewing (Sapporo) — Sapporo-owned with an enterprise ERP layer above and brewery-native production tools at the Escondido and Richmond facilities; large Untappd footprint and Shopify-powered DTC.
• Founders Brewing (Mahou San Miguel) — runs OrchestratedBEER-class production tooling, Arryved at the Grand Rapids and Detroit taprooms, Craftpeak on Shopify for DTC and merch, and Untappd for Business for the Cerebral release notifications.
• Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams, Truly, Twisted Tea) — public-company scale: SAP S/4HANA for finance and consolidation, brewery MES on the production floor, Salesforce for national accounts, NielsenIQ and Circana on the data side, and parallel DTC e-commerce.
• Bell's Brewery (Lion Little World Beverages) — Lion-owned with Sierra-class production tooling, Arryved at the Eccentric Cafe, and active Untappd brand presence.
• Allagash Brewing Company — independent Portland (ME) brewery on Ekos or OrchestratedBEER with Arryved at the tasting room, Shopify plus Craftpeak for DTC, and Klaviyo on the list.
• Yuengling — the largest American-owned brewery is a SAP and AVEVA Wonderware operation on the packaging side, with conventional distribution data feeds from its wholesaler network rather than Datisfy.
• Lagunitas (Heineken) — Heineken-owned, runs a global SAP-and-MES stack under the brewery with localized Arryved and Untappd at the TapRoom locations.

Integration Architecture

The stack only works when production, taproom, distribution data, DTC, and finance share data instead of living in silos. Ekos or OrchestratedBEER is the system of record for batches, recipes, inventory, and packaged goods on hand; Arryved owns the taproom transactional layer and pushes depletions back to the ERP; VIP and Datisfy feed distributor depletions; Shopify owns DTC orders; QuickBooks or NetSuite consumes financial truth from all of them.

An iPaaS layer (Zapier or Make at small scale, Celigo or Boomi at mid-market) connects what does not integrate natively.

The most important integration is the loop between Ekos/OrchestratedBEER and Arryved — finished kegs and packaged goods produced in the ERP have to draw down on the taproom side without double-keying, or inventory drifts and the TTB BROP filing breaks. The second-most important is depletion data from VIP and Datisfy landing in the same warehouse as Untappd brand analytics so the brand team can correlate check-ins to off-premise velocity.

Failure Modes

Four stack mistakes show up repeatedly when craft breweries hit a ceiling or get acquired at a markdown. (1) Running production in QuickBooks and spreadsheets — breweries that never adopt Ekos or OrchestratedBEER cannot produce a clean BROP, cannot trace lots in a recall, and burn the head brewer's nights on tax filings instead of beer.

The first audit usually forces the move; doing it before the audit is cheaper. (2) Using a generic restaurant POS in the taproom — Toast or Square at a high-volume taproom misses keg-level depletion, mug-club workflows, and flight builds, which means lost margin and a worse guest experience than Arryved would deliver.

(3) Ignoring Untappd for Business — breweries that treat Untappd as a consumer toy give up the only national channel that reaches active beer drinkers in the moment of choice, and they show up to chain reviews without the brand-health story buyers expect. (4) No depletion visibility past the wholesaler — without Datisfy or a clean VIP supplier portal, the brewery cannot prove velocity by chain and SKU, cannot fix slow accounts before they get cut, and finds out about delistings months late.

Budget & Sizing

Monthly software cost scales with barrel volume, taproom count, and distribution footprint. These ranges cover the recommended stack, not edge-case add-ons.

• Nano / brewpub (under 1,500 BBL, single location). Entry Ekos or Ollie Ops, Arryved or Square taproom, Untappd for Business, Shopify with Craftpeak Lite, Klaviyo entry, QuickBooks Online, Gusto. Expect $1,200-$3,500/month in software.

• Regional craft (5,000-100,000 BBL, multiple taprooms, 5-15 state distribution). Full Ekos or OrchestratedBEER, Arryved at every taproom with Insider, Untappd for Business at the regional tier, Datisfy across wholesalers, scoped Circana or NielsenIQ feed, HubSpot for chain accounts, Shopify Plus with Craftpeak, Klaviyo growth tier, QuickBooks Online Advanced or early NetSuite, Rippling. Expect $8,000-$30,000/month.

• National craft (100,000+ BBL, broad distribution, public or PE-backed). SAP S/4HANA or NetSuite OneWorld for finance, OrchestratedBEER or an SAP-MES brewery layer, Wonderware/AVEVA or Ignition on packaging lines, Salesforce Enterprise for national accounts, full Circana plus NielsenIQ, Datisfy at full coverage, Arryved at hospitality, Shopify Plus with Craftpeak, Klaviyo at scale, ADP or Workday for HR, and Snowflake plus Power BI or Looker for unified analytics. Expect $80,000-$400,000+/month.

30/60/90 Day Implementation Plan

A staged rollout protects production continuity, because the brewhouse cannot stop and TTB filings cannot lapse.

In the first 30 days, stand up the production spine. Migrate recipes, raw materials, packaging materials, finished SKUs, and open work orders into Ekos or OrchestratedBEER. Validate a full brew-to-package cycle against the prior system before cutover.

Wire QuickBooks or NetSuite so journal entries reconcile. File at least one BROP and excise return out of the new system before declaring stability.

In days 31-60, add the taproom and brand layers. Deploy Arryved at the taproom with menus, mug-club tiers, and keg-level inventory connected to Ekos. Stand up Untappd for Business with the brewery's full beer catalog and turn on push notifications for releases.

Connect Shopify and Craftpeak for DTC, merch, and release drops. Klaviyo flows go live with welcome, post-purchase, and release-drop sequences.

In days 61-90, integrate depletions and illuminate. Stand up Datisfy and the VIP supplier portal for wholesaler depletion data. Add HubSpot or Salesforce for chain-account tracking if regional or larger.

Connect iPaaS so Shopify, Arryved, Ekos, and finance reconcile nightly. Build a Power BI or Looker dashboard covering production yield, taproom margin, depletions by chain, Untappd check-ins by region, and DTC LTV. Finalize HR and payroll.

Exit with one dashboard the head brewer and the GM both trust.

FAQ

Ekos or OrchestratedBEER — which one for a 20,000-barrel brewery? Ekos for most independents at that size — lower cost, faster deploy, strong community after the Next Glass acquisition. OrchestratedBEER if the brewery wants SAP Business One underneath and expects to scale past 100,000 barrels or take on a private-equity finance team that requires real ERP.

Arryved versus Toast for a brewpub that does serious food? If food is more than ~40% of revenue, Toast is defensible because its kitchen workflows are deeper. Below that, Arryved wins because flight builds, partial pours, mug-club mechanics, and keg-level reporting are first-class instead of bolt-ons.

Do I really need Untappd for Business if I already have an Instagram following? Yes. Untappd reaches drinkers in the act of choosing a beer at a bar or store, which Instagram does not. The digital menu, push notifications, and brand analytics pay for the subscription several times over at any brewery doing meaningful distribution.

Datisfy or just my wholesaler's VIP supplier portal? The VIP supplier portal is free with the wholesaler relationship and good enough for a single-wholesaler brewery. Once you have three or more wholesalers, Datisfy is the only practical way to see depletions in one place by chain, account, and SKU.

Should I run DTC on Shopify or a brewery-specific platform? Shopify plus Craftpeak. Shopify is the e-commerce standard and Craftpeak adds the brewery-specific features (release drops, allocation, waitlists, age gates) without making you fight a niche platform every time Shopify ships an update.

What is the one tool I should buy first if budget is tight? The production ERP (Ekos or OrchestratedBEER). Without clean batch records you cannot file TTB BROP correctly, cannot trace a recall, and cannot scale the brewhouse; everything else can wait a quarter.

Sources

• Ekos (Next Glass) — Ekos Brewmaster product overview, Next Glass acquisition coverage, two-year customer price freeze announcement (2025-2026)
• OrchestratedBEER (Orchestra Software) — brewery management platform built on SAP Business One; product brief and customer milestones (2026)
• Arryved — brewery-specific POS and Insider loyalty platform, 2025 tab-volume reporting and 2026 taproom guidance (2026)
• Untappd for Business (Next Glass) — digital beer menu, brand analytics, and brewery ad platform documentation (2026)
• VIP (Vermont Information Processing) — supplier portal and wholesaler depletion data references (2026)
• Datisfy — multi-wholesaler depletion analytics for craft brewers (2026)
• Shopify and Craftpeak — brewery-specific Shopify theme and release-drop ordering layer (2026)
• TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) — Brewer's Report of Operations (Form 5130.9) and federal excise tax return (Form 5000.24) reference (2026)
• Brewers Association — annual craft beer industry production report and brewery rankings (2026)
• Brewbound and Craft Brewing Business — industry reporting on brewery technology, M&A, and operator profiles (2026)