Great beer is just the beginning. In 2025, the best breweries are using tech in their taprooms to pour faster, sell smarter, and keep guests coming back. From quick-close tabs to ounce-level reporting and QR code magic, here are 10 must-have tools modern taprooms swear by.

Bret Kollman Baker, cofounder and chief operations officer of Urban Artifact in Cincinnati, slices into the core of what goes into brewing the kind of fruited sour beer that keeps people coming back for more.

Join us for a Rahr Malt roundtable and learn all about the backbone of American beer.

This plant from the ginger family can add subtle spice to your beer—or turn it so gold that it could have been brewed at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

RELATED:

Michal Minarik, cofounder of Firstep Beer in Slovakia, shares this recipe for their bottom-fermented IPA with a “central European twist”—a beer that recently won Best of Show at the King of Craft competition in Budapest.

RELATED:

Is it the hop variety that matters most? Or when it’s picked? The soil it’s grown in? How it’s fertilized and irrigated throughout a season? Or something else? These two preeminent researchers—one from the States, one from New Zealand—debate the relative impacts of various factors on hop flavor and aroma.

In this clip from their webinar, Breakside brewmaster Ben Edmunds and experts from Berkeley Yeast discuss how the fermentation flavors from maltose-negative yeast strains help make nonalcoholic beers that don’t taste like NA.

RELATED:

The finished beer should be light on the palate yet offer plenty of rich biscuit and toffee flavors with some herbal-earthy hops. This is an excellent beginner style, as simple to brew as it is enjoyable to drink.

RELATED:

You’ve brewed the perfect beer, but what happens if it’s poured through a dirty draft line? Off-flavors, funky smells, ruined reputations. Though tedious, draft-line cleaning is the crucial final step to ensure every pint tastes as intended. Michele Wonder of Perfect Pour Services offers some expert tips on how to keep your lines spotless, your beer delicious, and your customers coming back for more.

Hard to find and historically interesting? Easy to drink and straightforward to brew? Sounds like the perfect style to tackle at home—or a nice one to grab some interest in the taproom, with its quick turnaround and quantity appeal.

RELATED:

From our Love Handles files on the world’s great beer bars: In south St. Louis, this small pub focuses on bottom-fermented beauties, from perfect Czech-style pours to ice-cold High Life.

The founder and head brewer for Garage Project in Wellington, New Zealand, is tackling more than just brewing these days. Garage Project’s team is breaking the fourth wall, investing in the Hāpi Research partnership with hop grower Freestyle—all for the sake of deeper hop flavor.

The brewmaster at Cleveland’s Fat Head’s—best known for their award-winning IPAs—shares a six-pack inspired by German and Belgian brewing traditions, with beers that speak to flavor, technique, and the experiences that have shaped his own approach to brewing.

If you’re looking to up your lager game, you’ve come to the right place. Here are five tips that will help you brew your best lager yet.