Next Glass Acquires FermentAble
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Dec. 7, 2021
Next Glass, a leading global provider of software, experiences, services, and commerce solutions to the beverage alcohol industry, today announced the acquisition of Ventura, California-based FermentAble, a brewery management software platform designed to simplify the production process.
Founded in 2015 by Darin Haener and Frank West, FermentAble was conceived after Haener spent a decade in the brewing industry frustrated with the lack of quality software solutions for managing brewery operations. After transitioning to a career in software development, Haener seized an opportunity to fill the hole he saw in the market for small to midsize breweries. "There are solutions out there for the big players to be sure," said Haener. "But a large part of the market is those small to midsize breweries who are trying to run their operations on spreadsheets."
FermentAble is designed to replace whiteboards and spreadsheets, providing simple-to-use software to manage inventory, scheduling, and all other aspects of the production side of running a brewery. As a former brewer, Haener understood the difficulty in keeping data updated and accurate, as well as the challenge generating TTB reports. "When it came time to generate TTB reports, the process typically involved a full day or more of rummaging through brew logs that had been through the ringer of an active brewing environment, not to mention illegible handwriting," said Haener.
In addition to generating TTB reports, FermentAble's technology automatically tracks real time raw material inventory and enables simple, intuitive brew log management. FermentAble's goal is to save brewers time on paperwork to allow them to focus on their craft.
"FermentAble was built for brewers by a brewer which is a unique strength of the product. Darin Haener, who worked as a brewer earlier in his career, and his co-founder, Frank West, are also very experienced and talented software engineers. That combination - Darin's brewing experience and the team's engineering prowess - produced software that has been used by customers in 21 countries. Brewers have repeatedly asked us to deliver an affordable, reliable, and intuitive brewery management platform that they love to use. We are throwing the full weight of Next Glass's resources and existing technology solutions behind delivering small brewers the platform they deserve," said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass.
"Next Glass currently counts 4,000 brewers as active customers. The team has proven its ability to integrate similar offerings into the Next Glass product ecosystem and we believe FermentAble makes the holistic solution Next Glass offers to beverage producers globally even more compelling," said Matt Stone, Managing Director at PSG. "Production management is an important addition to the Next Glass family and will be another pillar of continued strong growth for the company as the industry continues to emerge from the pandemic."
FermentAble's platform will be integrated into Next Glass's other technology platforms, furthering its mission to advance the beverage alcohol industry through innovation in technology, content, commerce, and experiences.
"We are already hard at work combining FermentAble's production management capabilities with Ollie and Oznr's leading B2B and B2C offerings for brewers to create the industry's first omnichannel brewery management solution," said Smith. "You'll also see some cool, one-of-a-kind integrations with Untappd, Untappd for Business, and BeerAdvocate down the road."
