A brewery owns two fleets. One is bolted down and never moves - fermenters, brite tanks, the glycol chiller, the canning line. The other never stops moving: kegs, which leave on a van, sit in a pub cellar for six weeks, and come back dented, late, or not at all. Most small breweries manage both fleets the same way, which is to say from memory, and the result is predictable - brew-day breakdowns on the fixed side and a keg fleet that shrinks a little every quarter. This guide covers how to run both: maintenance records for the plant, custody records for the kegs, and the small third fleet of taproom and events kit that nobody thinks about until festival weekend.
What you will learn
- The keg float is a custody problem
- What to track from brewhouse to taproom
- Maintenance before it takes a brew day
- Getting started
- One register with AMPthilly
- FAQ
The keg float is a custody problem
A keg is a steel asset you keep handing to other businesses and hoping to see again. The breweries that keep their fleet do a few things consistently:
- Every keg out is a checkout to a named account - the bar, the distributor, the festival - with an expected return window. “Somewhere in the trade” is not a location.
- Dispatch is the recording moment. Scanning kegs onto the van turns the load list into the custody record. No separate admin step survives a delivery morning; the scan has to be the step.
- Returns capture condition. Dented chimes, missing caps and valve damage noted at the dock get repaired or billed. Noticed three months later, they are just shrinkage.
- Long-out kegs get chased while the trail is warm. A keg at an account that has gone quiet is dead stock you paid steel prices for. A regular review of what has been out too long is the difference between a phone call and a write-off.
- Count the fleet honestly. A periodic physical count against the register keeps inventory accuracy real - and tells you whether you are buying kegs to grow or buying kegs to replace the ones you lost.
Whether you track kegs individually or as counted pools per account depends on fleet size; either way, the account-level answer to “how many of our kegs do you have” must come from the register, not from goodwill.
What to track from brewhouse to taproom
- Vessels - fermenters, brite tanks, hot and cold liquor tanks. Service notes, seal and gasket changes, pressure relief valve checks.
- Transfer and process kit - pumps, the heat exchanger, CIP equipment. The highest brew-day-risk items in the building.
- Cooling and gas - the glycol chiller, CO2 cylinders and regulators (cylinders are often rented - record whose they are and when they go back).
- Packaging - canning or bottling line, labeller, keg washer. Downtime here stacks up against release dates.
- Taproom and events - draught systems, mobile bar kit, signage, two-way radios for festival crews and their batteries labelled to kits.
- Safety kit - fall protection equipment for working on top of tanks, with inspection dates an audit will ask about.
Hoses, gaskets, seals and couplers are stock with reorder points, not per-item records - a register clogged with tri-clamp seals is a register nobody maintains.
| Asset | The failure you are preventing | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Fermenters and brites | A seal or valve failing mid-batch | Service dates, parts changed, inspection notes |
| Pumps and heat exchanger | A brew-day stoppage | Service history, spares on hand |
| Kegs | Walkaways and write-offs | Which account holds each keg, and since when |
| Canning line | Packaging-day downtime | Maintenance log, parts replaced |
| Events and taproom kit | The festival-weekend scramble | Kit contents, who has it now |
Maintenance before it takes a brew day
Brew day is when everything broken announces itself, which is exactly the wrong time. The fix is splitting maintenance into its two halves and recording both. Preventive maintenance - seal changes, pump service, glycol checks, valve testing - goes on the calendar against the brewing schedule, so the work happens in the gaps rather than during them. Corrective maintenance - the pump that died, the chiller fault - gets logged on the asset when it happens, with a photo and the repair invoice attached.
The payoff is the history. Two seal failures on the same fermenter in a year is a pattern; a pump on its third rebuild is a purchase decision. Neither is visible if repairs live in a group chat.
Tip: scan kegs onto the van as you load. The dispatch scan is simultaneously the load list, the custody handover, and the only admin a delivery morning will tolerate.
Getting started
- Count the keg fleet first, honestly. The number you find is the baseline every later decision rests on.
- Register the fixed plant - vessels, pumps, chiller, packaging line - with serials, install dates and suppliers.
- Label for the environment - panels and frames for plant, the chime area for kegs, laminated throughout.
- Check out what is already in the trade to the accounts that hold it, so the register is true from day one.
- Enforce one habit: nothing leaves the loading dock unscanned.
One register with AMPthilly
AMPthilly holds both fleets in one register. Fixed plant carries its service history - issues reported with photos through the service desk, tickets moving through statuses like awaiting parts, repair invoices attached, the full history staying on the asset permanently. Kegs work as checkouts: assigned to an employee, client or location with a due date or open-ended, with the overdue list showing what has been out too long and returns capturing condition. QR labels print in batches and scan with any phone camera in the browser - no app for the delivery driver to install. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets with no card required, which fits the brewhouse plant for a pilot; a full keg fleet usually needs the asset limits of a paid tier, listed on the pricing page.
FAQ
How do small breweries keep track of kegs? Every keg out is a checkout to a named account with an expected return; the dispatch scan is the record, returns capture condition, and long-out kegs get chased early.
What brewery equipment should be on an asset register? Vessels, pumps, heat exchanger, chiller, CIP kit, packaging line, draught systems, the keg fleet, and the taproom and events layer. Seals and hoses are stock, not assets.
How do you keep maintenance records for tanks and pumps? A record per vessel and pump, with dated entries for every service and repair and the invoice attached - so repair-or-replace is a lookup, not a guess.
Will QR labels survive a brewery? Laminated labels on panels and frames above hose level, and on keg chimes, hold up well. Damaged labels regenerate; the record keeps its history.
Is a spreadsheet enough to track brewery equipment and kegs? Fixed plant, barely; kegs, no. Custody changes at the dock and the account, and nobody edits a sheet from a delivery van.
The takeaway
A brewery’s equipment problem is really two problems wearing one apron: plant that must not fail on brew day, and kegs that must come home. Put service history on every vessel and pump, make the dispatch scan the keg record, review what is out too long, and keep the events kit in named kits. Run both fleets from one register and the brewery stops paying twice - once in downtime, once in vanished steel.