Inventory mistakes rarely announce themselves until they show up as dumped beer, frozen tank capacity or cash quietly locked in the cooler.
With tight margins and demand shifts faster than many production calendars, inventory discipline has moved from back-of-house housekeeping to a frontline business risk. Wynkoop and HighGrain are tackling that pressure from different angles, but with the same objective: reduce exposure without slowing the operation.
For the Denver-based Wynkoop, the constraints start with the building itself. Head Brewer Kat Hess operates inside a historic facility where large-scale system upgrades are not always possible. That reality forces a different strategic posture: prevention over replacement.
Rather than rely on sweeping infrastructure changes, Hess has leaned into rigorous maintenance and process clarity.
“We focus heavily on prevention by monitoring for potential system failures and performing regular maintenance on pumps, condensers, evaporators and glycol systems,” she told Brewer.
Clear standard operating procedures function not just as consistency tools but as early-warning mechanisms, helping the team spot small deviations before they escalate into batch-threatening failures. When breakdowns do occur, the emphasis shifts to rapid response to minimize product loss.
The underlying insight is pragmatic: not every brewery can engineer its way out of risk. Many must instead operationalize their way out.
At Cincinnati’s HighGrain Brewing, the biggest fear is cooling failure. Austin Neal explained that they views chiller or cooler downtime as the most immediate threat to finished beer inventory, and their mitigation strategy reflects a more tech-forward posture.
HighGrain has invested in redundant cooling capacity paired with always-on temperature monitoring.
“We mitigate this through redundant cooling systems and 24/7 temperature sensors that alert us before the beer reaches a critical temperature,” Neal said.
The goal is not merely awareness but intervention time and creating a buffer window in which staff can act before quality is compromised.
But technology alone does not solve the problem. One of the more revealing operational choices is ownership. The HighGrain brewing team — specifically the head brewer — is directly responsible for alert response.
“Our brewing team is responsible for alerts,” Neal said. “If a cooler temperature spikes, the head brewer gets a notification immediately.”
Notifications feed into an established on-call workflow so after-hours temperature spikes do not become next-morning surprises. That clarity addresses a common blind spot in brewery automation. Many operations install smart monitoring but fail to define who owns the alarm at 2 a.m. Without that accountability, sophisticated systems can create a false sense of security while product remains exposed.
Inventory accuracy upstream is only half the battle. Both breweries emphasize that forecasting discipline is what ultimately keeps storage balanced and tanks turning efficiently.
Hess relies heavily on both real-time and historical sales data, graphing trends to anticipate seasonal shifts.
“I regularly review real-time and historical sales data to forecast demand,” she said.
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The data informs prioritization across both raw materials and finished goods, allowing Wynkoop to remain responsive without overcommitting tank space or warehouse capacity. The approach reflects a broader industry shift toward tighter demand sensing rather than relying on static annual production plans.
HighGrain applies a similar data-driven model but ties it more directly to brand portfolio management. Using POS data segmented by day and season, the team aligns brew schedules to protect availability of core brands while deliberately preserving tank capacity for seasonal rotations.
Taken together, the two breweries highlight a maturing philosophy around inventory management in craft beer. The risk is no longer framed simply as running out of beer or having too much. Instead, operators are balancing three competing pressures: infrastructure limitations, technology complexity and demand volatility.
For breweries operating in older facilities, Wynkoop underscores the value of procedural rigor and maintenance culture. For those able to invest in monitoring infrastructure, HighGrain demonstrates the importance of pairing technology with clear human ownership.
