Cellarhand scores 5.5 out of 6 on making beer, the best of the four products here. On selling it we score 1. Breweries that start sending out kegs outgrow us, and 26 of the 58 deals we lost in the last three months said so. Read this before planning on Thursday 4 March.
Each axis is a score from the matrix below. Granary is the only one strong at both, at 4.6 times our price.
Breweries making 500 to 5,000 barrels a year. Starts at the recipe and stops at the tank.
Regional breweries from 10,000 barrels up. Production, sales and accounts under one contract.
Any brewery that sends out kegs. Starts where the beer leaves the tank.
Brewers under 500 barrels, often one person. A recipe book that grew.
The other 18 lost deals went to nobody. Those breweries stayed on spreadsheets.
Sixteen things a brewery asks for, in three groups. A full mark scores 1 and a half mark scores 0.5. Where a product does something only partly, the limit is named under the feature.
| Cellarhand | Granary | Tapledger | Wortbook | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Making the beer scores out of 6 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 1 | 2 |
| Recipes scaled to batch size | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Brew-day log on a tabletWortbook: no timers or step prompts. | Yes | No | No | Partly |
| Tank scheduleWortbook: a list of tanks, no calendar. | Yes | Yes | No | Partly |
| Fermentation readings with alertsGranary: stores readings, sends no alerts. | Yes | Partly | No | No |
| Batch cost per barrelCellarhand: ingredients only, no labor. | Partly | Yes | No | No |
| Packaging runs logged | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stock and purchasing scores out of 4 | 2.5 | 4 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Ingredient stock drawn down by each brewWortbook: by hand. | Yes | Yes | No | Partly |
| Reorder alerts | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Lot tracking, grain to kegCellarhand stops at the tank. Tapledger starts at the keg. | Partly | Yes | Partly | No |
| Purchase orders to suppliers | No | Yes | No | No |
| Selling the beer scores out of 6 | 1 | 5.5 | 5 | 0.5 |
| Keg tracking by scanQ2 | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Orders from bars and distributors | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Invoices sent to accountingQ2Cellarhand: a CSV file to upload by hand. | Partly | Yes | Yes | No |
| Delivery runs plannedGranary: a load sheet, no route. | No | Partly | Yes | No |
| Excise report filled inQ2Cellarhand, Wortbook: totals to copy across. Tapledger: production typed in. | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly |
| Taproom sales linkedTapledger: two till brands only. | No | Yes | Partly | No |
| All 16 features | 9 | 14 | 6.5 | 3 |
Selling the beer goes from 1 to 3 out of 6. The whole matrix goes from 9 to 11.5 out of 16.
The matrixWe opened a trial of each rival from 1 to 5 February 2027 and ran the same test batch through all four: a 15-barrel pale ale, packaged into 30 half-barrel kegs. A full mark means it worked with no workaround.
Prices and setup timesFrom each product’s own price and help pages, read on Tuesday 9 February 2027.
Lost dealsThe one reason our sales team logged when closing each of 58 lost deals, 1 November 2026 to 31 January 2027.
What it leaves outSupport, reliability and how each product feels after a year. A matrix can’t see those.