If you are in the brewing industry you are likely familiar with Ekos, a craft business management software. Ekos has been working on their programming for the batch process for a long time. I first got a sneak peek at last year’s user conference. Over the summer, I received an email from Ekos telling me to prepare for the new batch process. They made a two-minute video which summarizes the steps that brewery owners need to take. I highly recommend that you watch the Ekos video and review the enhanced batch process page on the help portal. They have spent a lot of time creating articles explaining the changes to the system.
The main thing to understand is that after the upgrade, Ekos will not just ‘start a batch’. It will start a process step. This is more in line with other manufacturing systems out there. It allows for better inventory control (dry hops are used several days into the process), and will also allow for task management. Another feature I find exciting is that you can now create a daily to do list. I have yet to see that capability in any brewery system.
This is not a simple upgrade. You need to understand what it is doing and you will need to update your recipes. Study the changes and get ready to use the new features. If you haven’t gone live yet or are just going live, you have the option of starting over. That may be the best option as all of the data would use the same processes.
One caution: be very careful. If you use Ekos to create your ‘brewer’s report of operations’, Ekos is asking you not to upgrade at this time. That is unfortunate as most people use Ekos to create the return. Doing the return manually is a pain and is one of the reasons why a brewery would switch to Ekos in the first place.
If you are using the new Ekos batch process please leave a comment with your own experience and tips.
