About
A brewer built Barley.
Brewlytics.ai exists because Brian Winckel — a homebrewer since 2008, professional brewer at Heretic and Calicraft, founder of Buddy Brewing Co. — got tired of watching breweries he loves buy generic loyalty software that doesn't speak craft beer. So he built one that does.
Meet the founder
Brian Winckel is the founder of Brewlytics.ai and the maker behind Barley. The product is the long way around back to a single idea: every brewery deserves the kind of customer memory great bartenders carry in their heads.
The credibility on this isn't software credibility — it's brew-deck credibility. Brian is, above everything else, a brewer.
Talk to BrianHow it started
In 2008, Brian and a couple of buddies pooled their money and mail-ordered a 10-gallon pot, a conical fermenter, and a couple of extract kits — the bare minimum needed for a first batch of beer. They were young, naive, and obsessed with fresh craft beer. The hobby that came out of that order has now spanned 17+ years, two professional brewing jobs, a homebrew-club presidency, his own beer brand (Buddy Brewing Co.), and a long list of competition wins.
The Buddy Brewing tagline is "Beer for Everybody" — and that's the same instinct behind Brewlytics.ai. The recommendation engine isn't there to lecture; it's there to make the right pour easier to find for whoever's standing at the bar.
Why Brewlytics, why now
Every brewery Brian worked at had the same problem and a different name for it. Customers came in, they had favorites, they came back — until they didn't. Bartenders remembered the regulars; nobody remembered the rest. New releases went out via Instagram and a one-size-fits-all email blast.
The data was there. Square has every transaction. Bartenders know the patterns. The patterns are real — there's a Hazy IPA crowd, a Pilsner crowd, a sour person who comes in once a month and buys six of whatever's funky. Off-the-shelf loyalty software didn't see any of it. ChatGPT-on-rails saw none of it. Both of them treated craft beer like it was the same as groceries.
Brewlytics.ai is the answer to that — customer memory at brewery scale. It's the work of someone who has spent more time talking to regulars about what they like than building software, and who isn't going to forget which side of the bar Barley is supposed to serve.
Awards & recognition
From the homebrew side of the bar — a partial list of competition wins under the Buddy Brewing Co. label, including the recipe ("Pine Fresh") that earned a Barebottle Brewing partnership and a feature on the Life in 16 oz podcast.
- 1st Place · West Coast IPA2020
Pine Fresh
Barebottle / DOZE Competition
- 1st Place · Hazy IPA2022
Bio Logic
California State Homebrew Competition
- 1st Place · Hazy IPA2022
Mosaic to my Ears
Bay Area Mashers — World Cup of Beer
- 1st Place · Sour2021
The Gold Standard
Del Cielo Homebrew Competition
- 1st Place · Pumpkin Pie Ale2020
Jacks O Face
NHC SF Region 1st Round (unofficial)
- Featured · Press2021
Big Solano Brewhaha
Daily Republic
What we believe
Brewer-first
If a brewer wouldn't pour the recommendation, Barley shouldn't make it. The brew deck wins ties.
No transaction tax
Pricing on active customers, never on transaction volume. We don't get paid more because your brewery had a good month.
Customer privacy is a feature
Opt-in by default, opt-out one tap, data stays per-brewery. Privacy isn't a settings panel — it's the default.
Honest data
No vanity metrics. The dashboard shows what drove revenue, not what looked good in a deck.
Grounded in your menu
Recommendations only come from beers you're actually pouring. No hallucinated ABV, no invented awards.
Slow software, fast taprooms
Brewing is a craft of patience. Software for breweries should respect that — fewer, better features over a sprawling roadmap.
From the first brewery on Barley
“Barley has completely changed how we connect with our customers. Our repeat visits are up 34% and our community is stronger than ever.”
Frequently asked questions
- Who founded Brewlytics.ai?
- Brian Winckel founded Brewlytics.ai. Brian has been homebrewing since 2008, brewed professionally at Heretic Brewing Company and Calicraft Brewing Co., served as president of the Solano Garage Brewers homebrew club, and runs his own beer brand, Buddy Brewing Co. He started Brewlytics because the loyalty and customer-engagement tools available to craft breweries didn't speak the language of craft beer.
- Why was Barley built by a brewer instead of a software founder?
- Because brewery operations look obvious from the outside and aren't from the inside. Knowing that a Hazy IPA crowd is different from a Pilsner crowd, that release timing matters more than discount size, that a 4-tap nano runs nothing like a 12-tap regional — those are working knowledge, not requirements docs. A founder without time on the brew deck would have built a generic loyalty SaaS that happens to mention beer.
- Is Brewlytics affiliated with Heretic, Calicraft, or Buddy Brewing?
- No corporate affiliation. Heretic and Calicraft were prior employers; the experience there shaped what Barley does and doesn't try to do. Buddy Brewing Co. is Brian's own beer brand, separate from Brewlytics.ai. Customer breweries on Barley are independent from any of these companies.
- Where is Brewlytics.ai based?
- Northern California — close enough to drive to most of the Bay Area's craft breweries for an in-person setup if it helps. The product itself is fully remote-deployable; geography only matters for the demo and the occasional tap-tasting.
- Who else is on the team?
- Founding team. We'll add team bios here as the team grows. If you're a brewer, an engineer, or a designer who cares about craft beer and wants to help build this — get in touch.
- How can I reach Brewlytics?
- hello@brewlytics.ai for general inquiries. The fastest way to actually talk to someone is to book a 30-minute demo through any of the Book a Demo buttons on this site — Brian runs them personally for now.
Want to talk beer or talk Barley?
Demos are run personally — by the brewer. 30 minutes, no follow-up sales sequence. Worst case you walk away knowing more than you did about brewery-side AI.
Book a Demo