SaaS | Internet of Things (IoT)

Brewed for Success

BrewLogix and Trek10 build transformative IoT/SaaS solution that raises the bar for draft programs

Background

Founded in 2019, BrewLogix® is a technology solutions company influencing the next trajectory of growth in the beverage hospitality and craft brew industries. The company uses the unique insights of cloud-powered and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to help bars, restaurants, taprooms, and breweries elevate customer and staff experiences that drive profitability and brand loyalty.

Historically, hard-working owners and operators of on-premise environments have tolerated inefficiencies in managing the core component of their beverage service: the draft program. From manual inventory measurements and laborious spreadsheet tracking of keg movements and performance data to inefficient and inaccurate sourcing of product knowledge, forward-thinking on-premise owners and managers are fed up with the status quo and are breaking away from old patterns to find more streamlined and automated solutions to their challenges.

So how do you collect and analyze the ounce-by-ounce data pouring from a tap without impacting product quality (especially when the best draft program managers will resist any device that touches the actual draft products themselves)? By leveraging patented IoT sensors under kegs, BrewLogix offers the only non-invasive method for capturing real-time draft inventory data from the source and puts it to work in the recently launched Performance Platform™.

Designed and developed by the BrewLogix engineering team they call “The Dragon Slayers,” the Performance Platform is the first cloud-based draft inventory technology solution that illuminates and prioritizes draft program strengths and weaknesses in real-time, giving on-premise managers easy-to-understand tools to immediately elevate both staff and customer experiences around the draft program.

Challenges

When BrewLogix contacted Trek10, they were a lean organization that had a small, but rapidly growing engineering team. They were responsible for innovating three distinct yet cross-pollinating technology platforms that included 1.) pairing patented IoT hardware with a scalable and expansive cloud software solution, 2.) managing a massive amount of data, and 3.) growing the intelligence and predictive ability of the platforms as the data set grew. With these challenges top-of-mind, the BrewLogix Dragon Slayers made two critical decisions: secure a contracted “technical sherpa” - one with a depth and breadth of technical skill to help maximize the power and performance of their ecosystem and loop in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) consultant with IoT expertise to help seamlessly integrate and utilize advanced analytics and machine learning (ML).

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“Trek10 goes beyond building to specifications; they bring you into the process. Collaborating with and learning why Trek10 makes each recommendation has been nothing but enlightening and insightful.” - Nathan Zander, Sr. Director of Engineering at BrewLogix

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Solution

From the ground up, BrewLogix and Trek10 worked as an integrated team to develop and iterate on cloud-native, mobile-friendly software solutions consisting of the Performance Platform™, BreweryDB®, and MarketMyBrewery®.

As Nate Zander, Sr. Director of Engineering at BrewLogix said, “Trek10 has been embedded in our team and vice versa. The real-time communication has been a blessing.”

BrewLogix implemented a powerful data platform using AWS services. The data platform included an integrated set of technologies that collectively met BrewLogix’s comprehensive data needs. It enabled the acquisition, storage, provisioning, delivery, and governance of BrewLogix data, as well as adding a security layer for both users and applications.

MarketMyBrewery

BrewLogix is a critical data partner to the craft brew industry and was determined to deliver greater value to independent craft brewers through a time-saving, easy cloud marketing platform called MarketMyBrewery. The new platform eases the strain and frustration that constant, repeated data entry has on these small-to-middle market companies with lean marketing teams and budgets. For example, each time a brewer introduces a new product, they’re tasked with ensuring accurate information/data about that product is available to all of its channels. The work is detailed and repetitive. Alternatively, MarketMyBrewery provides a free, easy-to-use common repository for that data to help drive users to a brewery’s taproom, promote the tasting experience of their beers, ciders, and kombuchas, market their independent status, expose their brand to craft beer lovers planning a visit to their area, and much more.

BreweryDB

Data sourced directly from brewers then powers BreweryDB, the consumer-facing product that helps “match” craft brew lovers with the authentic brewery experience they are seeking. Customers can filter by their personal preferences such as kid-friendly, live music, food truck availability, type of beer, etc. They can use BreweryDB to plan “BreweryRoutes,” save preferences, and plan for future excursions. Users of BreweryDB can also explore “BrewKnowledge” and learn about their favorite brewed products, their styles, flavor notes, ABV, recommended glassware, serving temperature, and more. BreweryDB and its vast data help fans of craft, “craft their own brewery experiences”.

The Performance Platform

Non-invasive IoT sensors under kegs collect ounce-by-ounce data in this ground-breaking solution for bars and restaurants. Intricate, real-time inventory, tap, and keg-specific data feeds easy-to-understand dashboards and tools, offering actionable insights that raise the human and financial performance of the draft beverage program. Data populated in the MarketMyBrewery platform integrates with the Performance Platform to bring product-specific attributes (such as flavor notes, ABV, etc.) into the equation for expanded product knowledge and product-specific decision-making. The Performance Platform raises the bar for draft programs by putting the owners and managers of these critical profit centers in full command of their performance data.

Impact

Together, BrewLogix and Trek10 launched a powerful ecosystem for the hospitality and craft brew industries that, for the first time, gives hard-working independent businesses strategic leverage in the use of real-time data to drive profitability and brand loyalty. The ecosystem equips brewers to easily market their experiences to consumers they would otherwise have never known. It gives consumers a fun and efficient way to find brewery experiences search engines would have never presented. It gives bars, restaurants, and taprooms new and unique advantages in raising the bar on their draft program’s profitability and performance.

Additionally, the BrewLogix IoT solution delivers draft analytics without asking customers to install hardware on their draft lines or impact the quality of their draft products in any way. This non-invasive sensor innovation, along with the power of cloud computing now eliminates the historical concern over collecting draft-related depletion or throughput data. By tracking the availability of contents in the keg with patented weight sensors instead of a flow meter, BrewLogix can give its customers the most accurate performance data in the industry. Additionally, by leveraging machine learning, BrewLogix gives beverage managers and owners the ability to be proactive—not reactive—when it comes to draft inventory and operational knowledge.

Performance Platform customers have the benefit of on-demand inventory calculations and analysis, automated on-deck planning, on-tap performance metrics, and automated access to brewery-sourced product knowledge at the click of a button. Some would call that magic, but BrewLogix calls it "beautiful engineering thanks to our partnership with Trek 10.”

The AWS data platform was selected as a complete solution for ingesting, processing, analyzing, and presenting the data generated by the BrewLogix systems, processes, and infrastructure. BrewLogix’s applications benefit from all aspects of their data platform implementation on AWS. AWS services were integral to the solution BrewLogix and Trek10 built together. Key services include:

  • AWS IoT Core: Connect billions of IoT devices and route trillions of messages to AWS services without managing infrastructure.
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Streams: Capture, process, and store data streams at scale with a serverless streaming data service.
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose: Capture, transform, and deliver streaming data to data lakes, data stores, and analytics services.
  • AWS Appsync: A robust, scalable GraphQL interface that combines data from multiple sources, including Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, and HTTP APIs.
  • Amazon DynamoDB: A fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance by offloading the administrative burdens of operating and scaling a distributed database.
  • AWS Glue: Discover, prepare, and combine data for analytics, machine learning, and application development with a serverless data integration service.
  • Amazon Redshift: Analyze structured and semi-structured data across data warehouses, operational databases, and data lakes, using AWS-designed hardware and machine learning.
  • Amazon Athena: Analyze data in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) using standard SQL.
  • AWS Lambda: Run code for virtually any type of application or backend service without provisioning or managing servers.

Why Trek10?

BrewLogix knew what they wanted in a consultant from the get-go. They wanted a qualified technology contractor with AWS experience that would work with them to make their vision a reality. Trek10 was the obvious choice due to its experience and background. Zander praised Trek10 saying, “moving into this brand-new world of AWS, Trek10 has truly been a partner along the way, not just a contractor.” Zander further said, “Trek10 goes beyond building to specifications; they bring you into the process. Collaborating with and learning why Trek10 makes each recommendation has been nothing but enlightening and insightful.”

The Support Continues

Trek10 provides strategic ongoing support for BrewLogix with their managed services. This includes proactive 24/7 monitoring of their AWS environment as well as access to a dedicated and certified AWS experts from Trek10 who work directly with the BrewLogix team on a regular basis. Trek10 engineers perform environment modernization, security updates, deployment automations, cost optimizations, and other tailored services. Trek10 offers ongoing billing anomaly alerting to catch any slow increases or sudden spikes in AWS costs as well as a recurring cost optimization efforts to look for ways to remove unused resources, right size instances, and modernize architecture to reduce cost and improve performance.

About BrewLogix

BrewLogix is a technology solutions company influencing the next trajectory of growth in the beverage hospitality and craft brew industries. The company uses the unique insights of cloud-powered and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to help bars, restaurants, tap rooms, and breweries elevate customer and staff experiences that drive profitability and brand loyalty.

About Trek10

Founded in 2013, Trek10 focuses on helping organizations migrate to and maximize the benefits of AWS services. They put their effort into designing, building, and supporting AWS workloads with their team of top AWS experts help. From thought-leading content to a deep collaboration with AWS to building and sustaining modern cloud ecosystems, clients trust Trek10’s expertise, passion, and commitment to cloud modernization efforts.