Topa Topa Brewing Co. Unifies 5 Taprooms & Streamlines Compliance with Crafted ERP
The Customer
Topa Topa Brewing Co., a rapidly growing craft brewery with five taprooms throughout California’s Central Coast, selected Crafted ERP in 2020 to unify operations and enable strategic growth. Today, Crafted provides the operational horsepower necessary to manage production, inventory and finance across the company’s multiple locations.
About Topa Topa Brewing Co.
Founded in 2015 in Ventura, California, Topa Topa Brewing Co. takes its name from the distinctive east-west mountain range visible throughout Ventura County. From its inception in a 5,000 square foot former printing press building, the company has focused on producing quality beer and community involvement, earning the 1% for the Planet certification while creating approachable “beer for the people.”
The Challenges
Before implementing Crafted, Topa Topa recognized that using multiple systems was thwarting efficiency and growth. The brewery juggled QuickBooks for financials, Excel for planning and Ekos for production — creating data silos that hindered decision-making. “We had a hodgepodge of systems that didn’t talk to each other, and at no point could you see the end-to-end supply chain easily,” recalls Jack Dyer, co-founder and CEO.
Inventory accuracy was a constant challenge, with no single source of truth across the organization. The lack of visibility between sales, planning and finance meant the brewery couldn’t effectively forecast demand or optimize production scheduling. As the company’s popularity and production volume grew, these disconnected systems became increasingly problematic.
The timing of implementation added additional complexities. COVID-19 restrictions prevented in-person training, and the internal champion who initially drove the project left the company midway through the transition. The brewery was also struggling to manage limited access to production resources, which significantly impacted all teams.
Despite these obstacles, Topa Topa successfully implemented Crafted with the help of remote teams from its accounting, inventory and production departments. Through the coordinated effort between Doozy Solutions and Topa Topa’s leadership, the implementation stayed on track, laying the foundation for the brewery’s continued growth trajectory.
At the end of the day, the enterprise software is the foundational piece and the center point of our business. It’s where everyone goes — from finance to planning to brewing — where everyone's working and speaking the same language.
Jack Dyer | Co-Founder & CEO
Topa Topa Brewing Co.
The Solutions
Multi-Location Unification
Crafted transformed how Topa Topa manages its five taproom locations and central production facility. The platform enables seamless inventory transfers between locations and maintains accurate financial records, aligning with Topa Topa’s operational workflow. “Crafted has been able to help us with the multiple locations because we’re kind of selling beer to ourselves, but we’re obviously not buying it from ourselves. We’re just moving it around,” explains Graham Strong, director of brewing operations. “Because you can make multiple locations within Crafted, you can create your own setup.”
Additionally, integration with the brewery’s point-of-sale system provides real-time visibility into taproom sales and inventory needs. This allows Topa Topa’s warehouse team to fulfill location requirements and ensure inventory accuracy proactively.
Advanced Production & Traceability
The brewery now tracks every aspect of production from grain to glass with Crafted’s lot traceability functionality. This is particularly pertinent for producing Topa Topa’s Regenerative Organic Certified® lager Kernza, which it makes in collaboration with Patagonia Provisions.
The batch management features that come standard with Crafted allow Topa Topa to blend five batches into one tank while maintaining precise tracking of ingredients and substitutions. Graham notes, “Traceability is a huge benefit of Crafted ERP — whether it’s a lot number for hops, malt or any other ingredient, we’re able to trace it all the way back to the supplier, and they can then trace back to their source.”
Strategic Planning & Visibility
Crafted unified Topa Topa’s previously siloed departments, creating what Jack calls “the power of the triangle” between finance, planning and sales. Real-time data flows seamlessly, ensuring all teams work from the same accurate information. The platform’s reporting capabilities enable data-driven decisions about production scheduling, inventory management and resource allocation. “The worst thing ever is to show up to work and not have the tools necessary to do your job,” explains Jack. “That’s where Crafted helps us — by providing the tools to make sure we have everything in the right place.”
Streamlined Compliance
With Crafted, Topa Topa can maintain accurate records for all required compliance filings. The system automatically tracks batch information, volumes and movements necessary for regulatory reporting, eliminating manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors and audits. “Crafted helps us track everything that we need to satisfy the various compliance items that we have, like TTB and ABC,” explains Jack. “Accurate filings and tracking are really critical, especially as a brewery like us grows into a regional presence.”
What stands out about Crafted versus other ERPs is the simplicity of the interface. It's user-friendly — once you learn the terminology, the interface is simple enough that people can just glance at it and understand what's going on in the brewery from a 50,000-ft. view.
Graham Strong | Director of Brewing Operations
Topa Topa Brewing Co.
Working With Doozy Solutions
Topa Topa’s partnership with Doozy Solutions has been instrumental in maximizing its Crafted ERP investment. “The most significant benefit of working with Doozy has been the support — the quick responses,” emphasizes Graham. “Production is fast-paced, and whatever solution you’re trying to get to, Doozy figures out a way to make it happen where it makes sense to all parties at your facility, whether that’s production, finance or sales.”
The Doozy team’s industry experience proved especially invaluable during onboarding and has continued delivering benefits via ongoing training and support. “For somebody who’s not super fluent in the language of ERP, I can explain my way of doing it, and the Doozy support team can usually true it up for me,” Graham explains. This collaborative approach has enabled Topa Topa to continuously optimize its use of Crafted, positioning it for continued growth toward its goal of 30,000 barrels and beyond.
