If you run a brewery, winery, or restaurant, you already know that inventory day can test anyone’s patience. Full cases and unopened kegs are simple. But the moment you hit a half-used bottle of wine, a jug of oil that looks “sort of half full”, or a 30% bag of hops, everything becomes a guessing game. And that guessing is usually where your COGS starts to drift, even when your purchasing and recipes haven’t changed at all.
The truth is that partial containers cause the majority of errors in inventory. They are the small details that create big swings in food cost, pour cost, or grain cost without you noticing. But once you build a simple, repeatable way to handle them, your counts become cleaner, your numbers become more reliable, and inventory day stops feeling like a battle you have to get through.
Let’s walk through a friendly, straightforward way how to count partial containers so you can keep your sanity and keep your margins on track.
Why Partial Containers Cause So Much Confusion
The trouble with partials is that no two containers ever look the same. One jug might be opaque, another might have settled overnight, and another might be packed in a way that makes it impossible to see where the line really is. When you have different staff estimating levels in different ways, those small inconsistencies add up over time.
Most operators discover that their usage numbers feel “off”, even though nothing changed in the kitchen, cellar or brewhouse. That is often the first sign that partials are being counted differently from month to month. Once you understand that the confusion comes not from the ingredients themselves but from the way people measure them, the solution becomes much easier to manage.
Choose One Clear Method And Stick To It
The easiest way to improve partial counts is to stop relying on eyeballing altogether. You do not need to turn inventory into a science experiment, but you do need one consistent method that everyone follows.
Some teams prefer weighing items because it removes all doubt. You simply write the empty container’s weight on the side with a marker, place it on a small scale during inventory, and subtract the difference. When you are counting oils, hops, grain, fruit purees, sauces or chemicals, this approach gives you accuracy without the guesswork.
Other teams prefer volume markings. If the container is clear, you can add your own lines at one quarter, one half and three quarters so the person counting knows exactly what they are looking at. For wineries and restaurants, this works particularly well for open bottles of wine, juices, mixers, and kitchen liquids.
If weighing and marking are not possible, you can still improve accuracy by defining the fractions your team is allowed to use. For example, you might decide that all partial items are counted only as one quarter, one half, three quarters, or full. When you remove all the in-between estimates, your inventory becomes noticeably more stable.
What matters most is not which method you choose but that the same method is used every single time. Consistency is what keeps your COGS from drifting.
Make It Easy For Your Team To See The Same Thing
Even the best method falls apart if no one sees the container the same way. A simple cheat sheet goes a long way here. Many operators snap a few photos of what each fraction looks like for common items and keep that guide in the storage area or office. Once your team has a visual reference, the counts start lining up more closely.
It also helps to label shelves with notes like “weigh these”, “use fraction method here” or “check for markings”. Those small reminders reduce confusion and save time, especially during busy end-of-month periods when everyone is moving quickly.
Portion What You Can Upfront
One of the easiest ways to eliminate partials is to prevent them altogether. If an ingredient is always used in the same amount, you can portion it ahead of time. Brewers often divide hops into individual brew bags. Restaurants portion sauces or proteins into consistent containers. Wineries might pre-measure certain additives. Every item you can break down before service becomes one less question mark during inventory.
This not only improves accuracy but also makes prep smoother and reduces waste during production.
Focus Accuracy Where It Matters Most
Not every partial container needs to be measured perfectly. A partially used bag of flour does not carry the same weight on your P&L as a half tub of caviar or an open bottle of premium liquor. The key is identifying your highest-value items and treating those with extra care.
For breweries, that might mean accurate measurements for hops, yeast, small specialty grains, and adjuncts. For wineries, it might be open bottles, topping wine, and additives. For restaurants, it could be expensive oils, proteins, cheese,s and spirits. When you control variance on the items that matter most, your overall COGS becomes far more predictable.
Cross Check Your Counts Against Real Usage
Even with a clean process, partials will always introduce some level of estimation. That is normal. The way to keep things tight is by comparing your counts against what your invoices and POS say should have been used.
Once you look at beginning inventory, add new purchases, subtract ending inventory, and compare that to sales or batch sheets, you get a clearer picture of where things might be drifting. If something feels off, you can investigate portioning, prep waste, or supplier price changes before the issue becomes expensive.
Why This Makes Such A Big Difference For Your Margins
It is easy to think of partials as a small detail, but they influence some of the most important numbers in your business. If your food cost or pour cost jumps unexpectedly, partials are often the first place to look. Again, nothing dramatic needs to change in the kitchen or brewhouse for your margins to slide. It can happen quietly, through tiny miscounts repeated many times.
A few tweaks to your process give you cleaner data, more accurate margins, and better confidence in your numbers. And when your P&L reflects what is actually happening in your restaurant, cellar, or brewhouse, you are able to make sharper pricing, ordering, and staffing decisions every month.
How Vast Helps Operators Bring Order To Inventory
Many owners feel frustrated by messy inventory systems, but do not always know where the root of the problem is. That is where we can help. At Vast, we work closely with breweries, wineries, and restaurants to clean up their accounting processes, tighten their COGS, and turn monthly chaos into a clear, reliable system.
If you want better visibility, fewer surprises in your margin,s and a simpler way to manage inventory, reach out to Vast. We will help you build a process that works for your team and your unique operation.