People sometimes ask whether BeerCollab is a GS1 for beer. It is not, and it is not trying to be. GS1 gives every beer a number the whole trade agrees on. BeerCollab is where the brewery and everyone it supplies work together on what goes with that number, and it builds on what you already have from GS1.
GS1 sets the shared language of the supply chain. BeerCollab helps the people in that chain get the beer's information complete, correct and in each other's hands. A brewery that sells through retail benefits from both.
GS1: A global, not-for-profit standards organisation.
BeerCollab: A collaboration platform for the beer trade.
GS1: Every industry that trades physical goods, from beer to batteries.
BeerCollab: Breweries, their wholesalers, and the bars, restaurants, shops and sommeliers they supply.
GS1: Identifiers and data standards every retail and wholesale system understands.
BeerCollab: One shared product record per beer, checked for quality, and the work around it: requests, templates, access and release dates.
GS1: Issues your company prefix and the GTINs on your bottles and cases.
BeerCollab: Uses the GTINs you got from GS1. It never issues its own.
Where the two meet, BeerCollab follows the GS1 standard. Your GTINs keep coming from GS1 and stay yours; BeerCollab makes sure they end up on the right product and in front of the right partners.
Import the GTINs your brewery has from GS1. Turn on strict mode and only those verified GTINs can be assigned to a product, so every barcode you share is one you actually own.
Download every product with its GTIN and status in a format compatible with GS1 Data Source, for an audit or to keep both places in step.
A partner can record its GS1 Global Location Number next to its Chamber of Commerce number, so a bar or shop is the same location in every system it appears in.
Scanning the barcode on a bottle to open its product record, through the GS1 Digital Link standard, is on our roadmap.
A GTIN tells a system which beer it is. The rest — whether the allergen list is complete, what a bar should know about the taste, when a new seasonal may be announced — comes from people working together. That is what BeerCollab supports.
The brewery, its wholesalers and its horeca and retail partners work from one record. Distribution agreements, access per product and direct invitations decide who sees what, and the brewery keeps the final say.
See who works together on BeerCollab →Every product is checked for missing or inconsistent details — beer information, packaging and logistics, commercial data, media — and each point says where to fill it in. Breweries can mark their food information as verified, so partners know it comes straight from the source.
How data quality works →A wholesaler asks for what it needs in its own template, for one beer or a whole range, and receives it as a file or through the API and webhooks. Partners copy the brewery's texts and media straight into their menus and webshops.
How information requests work →Prepare a new beer in full, grant your partners access ahead of time, and keep it hidden until the release date you set. On the day, everyone has the complete record at once.
How new releases work →Twenty minutes with your own catalogue: we will show what BeerCollab adds to the GTINs you already have.
