Craft Beer Start-Up and University of Vermont Program Unite

From EKOS Brewmaster:

The Business of Craft Beer Program at The University of Vermont and Ekos Brewmaster, a brewery management software, have announced a collaboration incorporating Ekos into UVM’s Certificate program.

UVM’s program provides individuals seeking to launch a brewery, and those seeking employment in the craft beer sector, online courses focused exclusively on the business-side of the industry. Participants are guided by 28 craft beer industry professionals, all aimed at developing either business plans for future breweries or building their knowledge of marketing, sales, and operations in the craft beer sector.

Ekos Brewmaster is a cloud-based brewery management system that brings all of the different functions of the brewery from operations, beer production, sales and accounting into one easily accessible platform. Ekos also integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks and automatically generates a brewery’s TTB reports, excise and tax reports.

“Before Ekos, too many breweries were resorting to using over-priced and overly-complicated brewery management software packages – or worse, resorting to a simple spreadsheet," said Greg Forehand, founder and CTO of Ekos. "We were certain there had to be a better way to manage the entire business of brewing, that allowed the brewers to get back to brewing. So we set out to do just that."

Ekos Brewmaster is designed for ease of use, yet still provides all the tools that are essential for efficient brewery management and rapid growth in once place. From managing raw ingredients to production efficiency to brewery finances to creating invoices – your brewery info is at the tip of your fingers with just a few clicks or swipes.

"To run an efficient and profitable brewery, you must consistently be aware of what you have in inventory for both raw materials and packaged beer," added Greg Forehand. "While keeping a careful eye on the bottom line."

“We were looking to offer participants in the Business of Craft Beer Program a view of technology that aids in the efficient operation of small breweries,” stated program director, Gregory Dunkling. “In Ekos, we discovered an excellent, scalable, and affordable solution for breweries of any size. Given the number of breweries already using their software, we also felt this was the best option for our program participants.”

Learn more about the program – http://learn.uvm.edu/program/business-of-craft-beer/

About University of Vermont
As the craft beer industry becomes increasingly competitive, our faculty and instructors know the key to successfully launching and running a brewery is to build from a solid business and operational foundation. We’ve designed the program to provide essential industry knowledge in production, finance, sales, social media promotion, marketing, branding, and distribution.

About Ekos Brewmaster
Ekos Brewmaster is the industry leader in providing management software to independent craft manufacturing businesses – currently focusing on craft beverages! While they are small in size, they partner with over 1000 craft beverage producers to manage their day to day operations in production, operations, sales, and accounting. With just a few clicks of a mouse or swipes of a mobile device, they have made it easy for customers to organize, manage, and integrate information from every area of their operation into one easily accessible location.