Distillery Inventory Spreadsheet: Barrels to Dry Goods

A distillery inventory spreadsheet keeps three kinds of stock: spirit aging in barrels, bottled spirit ready to sell, and dry goods, the bottles, corks, labels and shippers. The barrels are the hard part, because they change while they sit: spirit evaporates through the wood, and the proof drifts, so the only way to know what's in a barrel is to gauge it and work in proof gallons, a measure of the alcohol rather than the liquid. In the example below, a small distillery has 241.09 proof gallons in five barrels, has lost between 2.5% and 7.2% to evaporation since filling, and has $3,205.83 of cost tied up in them, which works out to more per proof gallon now than when they were filled. Below is the proof gallon arithmetic, the barrels, bottled stock, dry goods, what this sheet isn't, and a free template.

The short version

• Work in proof gallons: wine gallons × proof ÷ 100.
• Record each barrel's fill: wine gallons, proof, date, and what the spirit and barrel cost.
• Gauge barrels on a schedule and record wine gallons and proof now.
• The difference is the angel's share; it raises the cost of every proof gallon left.
• Count bottled stock in bottles and convert to proof gallons.
• Keep dry goods against a par, ordered in whole cases.
• This is a stock and cost sheet, not a TTB report.

Proof gallons

Federal rules define a proof gallon as a gallon at 60 °F that's 50% alcohol by volume, or the alcoholic equivalent, and a wine gallon as 231 cubic inches, an ordinary US gallon of liquid (27 CFR 19.1). In practice:

Wine gallons × proof ÷ 100. The barrel lost 4.8 wine gallons of liquid but only 4.31 proof gallons of alcohol, because water left faster than alcohol and the proof rose. Proof here assumes a properly gauged, temperature-corrected reading.

The barrels

Pine Gulch Distilling Co., a made-up craft distillery in Rapid City, South Dakota, I use in these examples, gauges its barrels at the end of September:

The cost in a barrel is the new spirit at its cost a proof gallon, $9 for the bourbon, plus the barrel. Evaporation doesn't change that cost; it spreads it over fewer proof gallons, so B-101's bourbon went into the barrel at $12.46 a proof gallon, barrel included, and is $13.36 now. Every month in wood makes what's left a little more expensive. How aging stock is carried on the books is in work in process inventory formula.

Bottled stock and dry goods

A 750 ml bottle is 0.198 wine gallons, so 420 bottles of 90-proof bourbon are 83.21 wine gallons and 74.89 proof gallons. Dry goods sit beside them: bottles, corks, labels and six-bottle shippers, each against a par and ordered in whole cases, so a gin label shortage doesn't stop a bottling day. How par levels and case rounding work is in how much inventory to keep on hand.

What this sheet isn't

A distilled spirits plant keeps its own records and files monthly reports of production, storage and processing operations with TTB (27 CFR 19.632). This sheet is for knowing what you have and what it cost; it doesn't produce those reports or replace the records behind them. The numbers in it can help you check them. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Get the template

Download the distillery inventory spreadsheet. Three sheets. Barrels takes each barrel's fill, cost and latest gauge, and works out proof gallons in and now, what evaporation took, and the cost a proof gallon now. Bottled takes each product's bottle size, proof, bottles and cost, and works out wine gallons, proof gallons and value. Dry goods takes each item against par and orders in whole cases. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Forty barrels in a rickhouse, gauged on different days, three spirits in production, a bottling run every two weeks, and a tasting room and three distributors selling: the sheet is out of date the day after a gauge, and the question of which barrel went into which bottling, and which bottles went to which distributor, lives in a notebook.

How TaroStack does it

Plainly first: TaroStack doesn't produce TTB reports or work in proof gallons. Those stay in your TTB records, as they do for the breweries in brewery inventory management software.

What it does is the rest of the chain. Grain, botanicals, barrels, bottles, corks and labels are received by supplier lot, at what you paid. Recipes are multi-level and versioned, and recording a batch takes each input from its lot and notes it automatically. Each barrel fill can be recorded as its own batch, so each barrel is its own lot, with its fill and gauges kept on the batch record as your own fields. Bottling is a batch that takes spirit from the barrel lots used, with the bottles, corks and labels, so every bottling run carries its barrels, and one report walks a lot to every customer who got it. Dry goods sit on the reorder list in days of cover, counts work on a phone in the rickhouse, and every list exports to CSV.

So TaroStack suits a small distillery for whom lots, traceability and true cost matter, and who files TTB reports from its own records. Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How do you calculate proof gallons?

Wine gallons × proof ÷ 100. A barrel holding 48.2 wine gallons at 123 proof holds 59.29 proof gallons.

How do distilleries track barrel inventory?

Record each barrel's fill in wine gallons and proof, gauge it on a schedule, and work in proof gallons. The difference since filling is what evaporation took.

What is the angel's share?

The spirit that evaporates through the barrel as it ages. In the example, five barrels lost between 2.5% and 7.2% of their proof gallons since filling.

Does a distillery inventory spreadsheet replace TTB reports?

No. A distilled spirits plant files monthly reports of production, storage and processing operations with TTB. A spreadsheet helps you know your stock and costs; it doesn't replace those reports or their records.