The Cold Side

FermentIQ
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Education

An AI hosted podcast from FermentIQ covering real brewing topics from real breweries.

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    The Recall You Handled Informally

    The recall you handled informally: about $2,700 for a bad date stamp, forty half-barrels, and an afternoon of phone calls. Mac and Wren on why the informal version usually works, the three reasons it worked that week (the beer was fine, fourteen accounts, caught it Thursday), and why "we handled it" is not a record. First Runnings: a call from a bar — "this keg tastes wrong." Mac drives forty minutes each way to find the beer is fine and the date stamp says February. The stamp had been guilty since Tuesday morning, when the date coder started printing half-dates and nobody stopped the line. Hot Side: the arithmetic, assumptions throughout. Assume 40 half-barrels in the run and 25 replaced at an assumed $95 a keg to produce: $2,375 of beer. Assume two people, six hours, $28 an hour fully loaded: $336 of apology-driving. About $2,700 — and the number is not the wholesale revenue, and it assumes every affected keg was found, which is the assumption that breaks. Mac's defense of the informal version (it worked; he showed up; two accounts ordered more), Wren's full concession — then her win: could he name, in one afternoon, every account that got that lot? He could not. That is not a record. That is a memory. Ask BrewBuddy (real question, real account, whatever it says is what you hear): "Which customers received lot 260824-0914?" — landed 2026-09-25 on deploy 510eca62 (PR #810), attempt 1 of 3: lot 260824-0914 (Alma De La Tierra), 16 real customers. Per Jacob's explicit order, 15 customer names are anonymized with fictional stand-ins on air (Playground Brewery Taproom kept real); verbatim record in capture.json/answer.txt. Dry Hops: the code date is only useful if it's on the paperwork as well as the keg — put the lot on the delivery paperwork, every stop. And call the account that didn't complain: the loud ones cost you an afternoon, the quiet ones cost you a customer. Last Call: take your last packaging run and try to list every account that got it. Time yourself. If you can't do it in an afternoon, the list doesn't exist yet. Cold Side is from FermentIQ — built by a brewer, fifteen years on the floor, no engineering background, who directed AI coding agents to build the ERP he couldn't buy. It runs the whole operation, grain to glass. The first thirty days are free and you can cancel anytime at ferment-iq.com. --- 2026-09-25 diagnostic + fix (post-retry): - Jacob confirmed via pgAdmin: sales_invoice_item_lots has 807 rows for org 11 — migration 447's backfill worked. Data side is proven. - Root cause of the retry failure: PR #807 added the table to _QUERYABLE_TABLES and documented the join in docs, but BrewBuddy's SQL-generator prompt was never taught the join. The live schema path gives the model bare columns with no join semantics, and the prompt's RULES still described the pre-447 world. The canonical join only lived in the fallback schema-ref doc and the migration comment — neither reaches the model on the live path. - Second defect: the prompt told the model to JOIN product_variants for finished-goods product names, but product_variants wasn't in _QUERYABLE_TABLES, so the validator killed the query. This is exactly what broke the retry's "lots shipped in 90 days" attempt. - Fix: PR #809 (https://github.com/FermentIQ/FermentIQ/pull/809) — adds a LOT TRACEABILITY rule to the query prompt with the canonical join (junction → sales_invoices → crm_customers, lot via finished_goods_inventory.lot_code, org scoped on junction), and adds product_variants + products to _QUERYABLE_TABLES. Tests: 37/37 + 46/46 green; new assertions fail pre-fix. Awaiting Jacob's merge + deploy. - Note: lot 260807-EA shows 524 cans still on hand — it may genuinely have no junction rows (never shipped). After the fix, BrewBuddy will answer that definitively instead of deflecting; use "lots shipped in last 90 days" to pick the episode lot. - Process note: first publish attempt (PR #808) was polluted by a stale work copy (mass revert) — closed immediately, branch deleted, workdir synced to current main, republished clean as #809. Lesson recorded in ~/AGENTS.md. --- 2026-09-25 second diagnostic (post-#809 capture): - #809 deployed and live (deploy dep-dar89udg1s2s73e1ff30 on merge commit c6a1ac4c), but the capture still deflected on all 3 attempts. - Root cause: two steering layers, #809 only fixed the second. The query_org_data TOOL DESCRIPTION is what the BrewBuddy agent reads when framing the `question` parameter — it said nothing about lot traceability, so the agent framed every lot question around sales_invoice_items / packaging_runs, and the SQL generator inherited that framing. The agent's expanded question never mentioned sales_invoice_item_lots. - Fix: PR #810 (https://github.com/FermentIQ/FermentIQ/pull/810) — documents the junction-table framing in the tool description + question param (with tables_hint), and adds a worked SELECT example to the prompt rule (the failed attempt-3 join was malformed). Tests 44/44 + 48/48 green; org-scoping and standards checks pass. Awaiting Jacob's merge + deploy, then capture retry #2.

  2. Sep 18

    Contracted: What You Owe the Hop Farm in a Flat Year

    Contracted hops in a flat year: $2,400 a year of hops you bought and did not brew. Mac and Wren on why the contract was the responsible thing to sign, the four ways out (priced honestly), and why the surplus market seizes up exactly when you need it. First Runnings: the contract was the responsible thing to do at the time — and that is what makes it hurt. The farm plants in spring off what you committed in winter. They can't plant on optimism. Hot Side: the arithmetic, assumptions throughout. Assume 800 lb a year of one variety at an assumed $12 a pound: $9,600 committed. Assume production comes in 25% under plan — you brew 600 pounds' worth and carry 200. Two hundred pounds at $12 is $2,400 a year of hops bought and not brewed. Over a three-year contract, that's $7,200 — and the number is not a write-off: you own the hops, sitting in a cooler, losing alpha while you decide. Ask BrewBuddy (real question, real account, whatever it says is what you hear): how much of each hop variety did we use in the last twelve months? [Capture pending — this note updates when the take lands.] Dry Hops: write the worst-year volume next to the contract volume, on the same page, before you sign — not the forecast, the worst year. And never sign a contract in the month you had your best sales week. Sign in February. Nobody's celebrating in February. Last Call: pull your hop contracts and write your actual last-twelve-months usage beside each committed volume. If the two columns don't match, you just found your two hundred pounds before you paid for it. Cold Side is from FermentIQ — built by a brewer, fifteen years on the floor, no engineering background, who directed AI coding agents to build the ERP he couldn't buy. It runs the whole operation, grain to glass. The first thirty days are free and you can cancel anytime at ferment-iq.com.

  3. Sep 11

    Monday Morning: What You Can Still Change

    Monday morning: the $2,400 you can price is the smallest part of the problem. Mac and Wren on what to look at, what you can still change — and the three tanks that have been sitting longest. First Runnings: $2,400 a year. Six rush ingredient orders at $400 expedited freight — an assumption, stated as one. But the freight line is only the freight line. It doesn't include the brew day you moved, the beer you made with substitute malt, or the four hours somebody spent on the phone instead of on the floor. Hot Side: the Monday walk. Twenty-two years of walking the floor, and the difference between knowing you're low on Citra because you can feel it in the cooler — and seeing it on a screen before it costs you. Ask BrewBuddy (real question, real account, whatever it says is what you hear): which three tanks have been sitting the longest, and how many days each? BT-1, Raven Stout: day 19. BT-2, Highland Heritage: day 17. FV-4, Alma De La Tierra: day 14. FV-5 close behind at day 13, five days into cold crash against its own three-day window — waiting on brite space. Dry Hops: put a due date on every recurring task, even if the date is wrong — a wrong date gets corrected the first time it goes red, a blank one never does anything at all. And keep the walk: whatever ends up on a screen, still go put your hand on the tank. Last Call: Monday, before you walk the floor, write down the three things that would hurt worst if they were already late. Then go find out whether any of them has a date on it anywhere. Cold Side is from FermentIQ — built by a brewer, fifteen years on the floor, no engineering background, who directed AI coding agents to build the ERP he couldn't buy. It runs the whole operation, grain to glass. The first thirty days are free and you can cancel anytime at ferment-iq.com.

  4. Sep 4

    Six To One: The Taproom Math Nobody Says Out Loud

    Cold Side, Episode 6: Six To One: The Taproom Math Nobody Says Out Loud A pour in your taproom and a keg on a distributor's truck are the same beer, and they are not the same business. This episode works out what a barrel is worth in each room, then spends most of its time on the costlier question of what that ratio leaves out. Halfway through we stop arguing and ask FermentIQ's built-in assistant to split a real August straight off the invoice records, and you hear the answer it gives. The number: 6.7 to 1, taproom revenue per barrel against wholesale, on a $7 pour and a $120 half-barrel keg. Both are stated on air as assumptions. Push both hard the other way and it is still about four and a half to one. The action: Take last month. Barrels through the taproom, barrels wholesale, and the revenue from each. Divide. Then look at your brew schedule and ask whether it matches the answer. Segments: 00:00 First Runnings 01:16 Hot Side: what a barrel actually earns in each room, and why the ratio is not margin 07:59 Ask BrewBuddy: "How much did I invoice my taproom in August, and how much did I invoice everybody else?" 09:02 Dry Hops 10:04 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  5. Aug 28

    Six Hundred Kegs: The Asset You Never Counted

    Cold Side, Episode 5: Six Hundred Kegs: The Asset You Never Counted Most brewers can tell you what one keg costs and almost none can tell you what the whole fleet is worth, where it is today, or how much of it is never coming home. This episode puts a number on the capital a keg fleet ties up, a separate number on what it quietly loses every year, and is careful about which of the two ever reaches your bank account. The number: $19,375 of steel you would not have had to buy. Assume 600 half-barrels at $125 each and 2,000 fills a year, and that fleet turns 3.3 times; at 4.5 turns those same 2,000 fills need only 445 kegs, leaving 155 surplus. Nobody sends you that money, though, because the steel is already bought: growing, it is kegs you don't buy next spring, and flat, it is surplus you would have to sell at a loss to realize. The figure that does leave your bank account is the other one, 8% attrition on 600 kegs, which is 48 kegs and $6,000 a year, every year. The action: Count the kegs in your building today. Empty, full, dirty, all of it. Then write down what you think you own. The difference is out in the world, and some of it isn't coming home. Segments: 0:00 First Runnings 1:16 Hot Side: what a keg fleet is worth, what it loses every year, and the difference between surplus steel and money 8:50 Ask BrewBuddy: "How many kegs did I deliver to accounts in June, and how many different accounts took them?" 9:38 Dry Hops 10:44 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. This episode carries no industry statistics at all: the $125 keg price, the 8% attrition rate and the 4.5-turn target are assumptions, and each one is labeled out loud on air in the same breath it is introduced. The Ask BrewBuddy segment is a live query run against a real account, played back unedited. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  6. Aug 21

    Your Cost Per Barrel Is Wrong, and Loss Is Why

    Cold Side, Episode 4: Your Cost Per Barrel Is Wrong, and Loss Is Why Ask a brewer what a barrel of the flagship costs and the answer comes off a card in the office: grain, hops and yeast, divided by batch size. This episode is about the second number in that division, because nobody has ever bought a barrel of wort. The number: 12% understated. Assume $600 of ingredients for a 15-barrel batch and the card says $40 a barrel. Package 13.4 of those barrels and the honest ingredient cost is $44.78. That gap is 11.9%, and the same 11.9% sits on every cost you divide by planned barrels instead of packaged ones. The action: Take your last three batches of one beer. Write down planned barrels and packaged barrels, then divide your ingredient cost by the packaged figure. Run it again with payroll, the building and the power bill on top, because ingredients are the smallest of the three. Segments: 0:00 First Runnings 1:32 Hot Side: the denominator that hides twelve percent, and why Wren won't give Mac a single cost-per-barrel number 8:53 Ask BrewBuddy: "What was my packaged yield on my last three completed batches?" 10:29 Dry Hops 11:19 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. The $600 ingredient bill is an assumption and we say so on air. The Ask BrewBuddy segment is a live query run against a real account, played back unedited. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  7. Aug 14

    The Weekend You Get Back: Reporting Without Reconstructing

    Cold Side, Episode 3: The Weekend You Get Back: Reporting Without Reconstructing The Brewer's Report of Operations takes about twenty minutes to fill in. Everything before it — the brew sheets, the keg board, the text message to the cellar guy who quit in June — is what actually takes the weekend, and this episode puts a number on that. The number: 60 hours a year. Five hours a month is an assumption and Wren labels it one on air, but at a forty-hour week that is a week and a half of an owner's time spent rebuilding a figure the brewery already had. The action: Take last month's filed numbers and try to tie the removals line back to actual sales and taproom depletions. Just that one line. Time yourself doing it, because however long that takes is your problem statement. Segments: 0:00 First Runnings 1:20 Hot Side: what the monthly report actually costs, and whether a whiteboard photo fixes it 7:56 Ask BrewBuddy: "What are my total removals for the month so far?" 9:16 Dry Hops 10:19 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. The Ask BrewBuddy segment is a live query run against the product, played back unedited. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  8. Aug 7

    Five Generations: What Repitching Actually Costs You

    Cold Side, Episode 2: Five Generations: What Repitching Actually Costs You Mac and Wren run the math on yeast repitching — liquid versus dry, on a 15-barrel system pitching 52 batches a year, with the cost of a dumped batch written into both calculations. The number that survives depends on whether you can count your generations, and most breweries can't. The number: $51,600 a year on liquid yeast, or $7,525 on dry. Same brewery, same question. Both figures are conditional on tracking your slurry. The action: Find your oldest slurry and write down three things — what generation it is, when it was harvested, and what beer it came out of. If you can't answer all three, buy fresh. Segments: 0:00 First Runnings 0:50 Repitching: the liquid vs. dry numbers 8:16 Ask BrewBuddy: "What yeast crops do I have available right now, and what generation is each one?" 11:21 Dry Hops 12:17 Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. Every figure we cite, we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverage producers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  9. Jul 31

    Tank Turns: The Four Days Nobody's Counting

    Four fermenters, and you want to make more beer. What do you buy? Nothing. You golook at how long beer actually sits in the tanks you already own. Mac and Wren work out what four days off your average tank occupancy is worth on afifteen-barrel system, where those four days are actually hiding (none of them arefermentation), and why the whole thing is worthless if you can't sell the beer. The number: 130 barrels a year. Almost 17% more beer out of the same steel. No loan,no permit. The action: Pull fill-date-to-clean-date occupancy on your busiest fermenter for thelast six months and average it. If that number is more than four days longer than youractual fermentation and conditioning time, you have found free beer. Segments00:00  First Runnings01:15  Hot Side — where the four days actually go07:49  Ask BrewBuddy — "Which fermenter has been occupied the longest right now,       and what stage is that batch in?"09:24  Dry Hops10:15  Last Call Mac and Wren are AI voices. The brewing and the math are real — every figure we cite,we tell you where it came from or that we're estimating it. FermentIQ is an all-in-one management platform for breweries and other craft beverageproducers. First 30 days free, cancel anytime. ferment-iq.com

  • 9 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

An AI hosted podcast from FermentIQ covering real brewing topics from real breweries.

Information

  • Creator
    FermentIQ
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 FermentIQ Inc.
  • Show Website
    The Cold Side