• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Need help self-distributing your craft beer? Opentapp might be the answer

January 20, 2016Chris Crowell

Opentapp distribution
Is this app the answer to your self-distribution dreams?

Beer distribution isn’t really about distributing (the action of sharing something out among a number of recipients), it is about power. Who gets in the door? How much? Where? How often? These are the only questions that constantly gnaw at the executives of Big Beer. Seriously, they toss and turn in their coffins all day thinking about it.

Amid the Big Beer power struggle, unfair distribution contracts and local political wrangling for more control, craft breweries need all of the help they can get, especially when they maintain that power for themselves and self-distribute. This is what we like about Opentapp, an app designed to allow smaller manufacturers and retailers to capitalize on self-distribution by networking, utilizing location services and e-commerce to allow direct transactions between retailers and manufacturers. Here’s a little background from the Opentapp team:

“Opentapp was created by brewers (The Massachusetts Bay Colony Brewers). In our endeavor to start our own brewery we ran into several dead ends trying to secure a distributor and decided to pursue self-distribution. We found that there needed to be a way for local manufacturers to network with local retailers in order to get their products out.”

RELATED: Craft beer self-distribution refresher: Does your state make the list?

Opentapp allows retailers to manage their self-distributing contracts and even place orders to local manufacturers to receive products the same day. The application also gives retailers the ability to search for and order craft spirits on their smartphone. All self-distributed products in one area are combined onto one online order sheet, making the app easier than dealing with multiple paper order sheets, excel documents, or email chains. The convenience of the application should boost sales for breweries trying to pick up new contracts.

Look, the three-tier system, despite the ugly power struggles, is actually pretty useful for craft breweries on the whole (at least at the moment). Independent brewers have a much better shot at getting their products to travel far and wide and sit on a retail shelf than an independent creator of, say, toothpaste or mustard. But the craft brewing industry and the demand for craft beer have both grown at an insane rate — a rate that the post-Prohibition distribution solution doesn’t have all of the answers for.

But to be a reality, Opentapp needs some help. The team recently launched a Kickstarter campaign, with a goal of raising $60,000 to fund creation of the application. Head to the page and see what it is all about.

CANFEST
Quick can supply updates from Crown and Ball corporate calls in Q3
CBB-remote-expo-logo
CBB’s Remote Craft Brewery Expo: All the new products, services you would have seen at BrewEXPO 2020
Arryved-Online-Ordering
Arryved developed an app to ease touch-free taproom sales, deliveries
can-can-awards
The only canned beer tasting competition is accepting submissions for 2020 (now with an artwork component)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. KCHopTalk says

    January 24, 2016 at 3:14 pm

    Need help self-distributing your craft beer? Opentapp might be the answer https://t.co/ClfQEHwIjA

    Log in to Reply
  2. SimianBeerCo says

    January 22, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    Need craft beer self-distribution help? Opentapp could be the answer and is pretty awesome sounding. https://t.co/pEiiJJ80Mw

    Log in to Reply
  3. MythicalBrew says

    January 22, 2016 at 4:29 pm

    Definitely something on our radar here at the Mythical Citadel….

    https://t.co/azjCiY1imu

    Log in to Reply
  4. Opentapp says

    January 21, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    Need craft beer self-distribution help? Opentapp is the answer https://t.co/ApPLbnLmV6 Check us out on https://t.co/FLzBOG7cqT

    Log in to Reply
  5. Lynn Johnson says

    January 20, 2016 at 11:36 am

    Lynn Johnson liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  6. Lou Harper says

    January 20, 2016 at 11:36 am

    Lou Harper liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  7. crsimp01 says

    January 20, 2016 at 10:34 am

    Need craft beer self-distribution help? Opentapp is the answer https://t.co/6jx2pfTag8 via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Resplendent Oregon hop farm has ultimate beer garden (TopWire Hop Project) reopening April 30 (enjoy some images)
  • This Get Your Drink On app gifts beer money to a phone’s digital wallet, so please send me some
  • New Yuengling limited-edition desert camo Lager cans honor vets and allow drinkers to engage with a Snapchat Yuengling eagle
  • Arryved debuts OpenTab to change the on-premise POS game

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Crosby Farm TopWire Hop Project 12Resplendent Oregon hop farm has ultimate beer garden (TopWire Hop Project) reopening April 30 (enjoy some images)
    April 15, 2021
  • Get Your Drink On app people cheers drinksThis Get Your Drink On app gifts beer money to a phone’s digital wallet, so please send me some
    April 15, 2021
  • GEA-InsightPartner-ProduktbildInside the real-time process control of GEA’s InsightPartner software
    April 14, 2021
  • roughhouse brewing cave aged beersCave-aged beer finally excavated by Roughhouse and other beers to know this week
    April 13, 2021
  • Distribution update: 21st Amendment heads to Hawaii, Upland Brewing to Chicago, Ceria Brewing to Texas/Puerto Rico and lots more news
    April 13, 2021
  • CODO Can design backgroundExploring canning trends and the can shortage with CanSource
    April 12, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by