Independent software for craft distilleries
Software made the way you make spirits.
Caskwork keeps your production records from grain to bottle and turns them into your monthly TTB reports and excise returns. It is built slowly and carefully, alongside working distillers, by a small Minnesota company with no investors and no plan to sell.
The Caskwork status screen: proof gallons, barrels aging, and what to resolve before filing.
The minute version
From the still to the 15th, and back again.
You got into this for the whiskey. Then come the numbers: notebooks, then spreadsheets that almost agree. And every month they have to become tax reports, due by the 15th. With Caskwork you log what you did in a few quick fields, the proof gallons are worked out as you go, and the ledger, your barrel lots and the monthly reports follow from it.
The monthly reality
You didn't open a distillery to do paperwork.
But every month, the federal government expects a full accounting of what you produced, stored, and removed, down to the proof gallon.
Spreadsheets on spreadsheets
Production in one file, transfers in another, bottling in a third. At month end you hope they all agree.
Proof-gallon math by hand
Wine gallons times proof, divided by 100, over and over. One transposed digit ripples through the whole report.
The 15th is always coming
Monthly operational reports. Excise tax returns. Each deadline arrives whether the numbers are ready or not.
Real consequences
Late or wrong filings mean penalties and interest. An audit looks back years, into records you kept in a hurry.
How Caskwork works
Keep good records once. Everything else follows.
Log it where it happens
One Log button takes any event (a mash, a spirit run, a barrel fill, a dump, a bottling) in your own words. It works on a phone on the production floor and is built for an entry that takes seconds, not minutes.
It never stands in your way
A save needs a date, a quantity and a vessel. Backdated or out of order is fine. Anything missing or inconsistent goes on a short list to resolve before you file. Never a rejected entry, never a box you can't get past.
Reports from your actual records
Your monthly 5110.40, 5110.11 and 5110.28 and your excise return are worked out from the log you already keep, with proof gallons corrected the way the regulations require. You review the figures, then you file.
Every change stays on the record
Nothing is overwritten. A correction is a new entry beside the original, every entry says who made it and when, and any bottle can be traced back to the barrels and grain it came from.
Built to last
An independent company, here for the long haul.
Craft distilling is a small industry with a long memory, and software that runs your tax position should be around as long as your barrels are. So Caskwork is set up to stay put.
No outside money
No venture capital. No private equity. No plan to sell to either.
Caskwork is bootstrapped and answers to the distilleries that use it. There is no exit clock to hit, so there is no reason to chase growth at your expense, squeeze accounts for add-ons, or hand you to a new owner who sees your records as an asset.
Your records are yours
Monthly figures, your TTB forms and every document you upload can be taken out from inside the app today. A complete export of everything is done for you on request, at no charge. How it works is written down.
Slow on purpose
Caskwork runs side by side with a working distillery's existing books before it is called finished, and it opens up to new distilleries a few at a time, so each one gets real attention.
You talk to the person who built it
Questions, problems and requests reach Alex directly. There is no sales team between you, and what you tell us shapes what gets built next.
Switching
See it match your books before you switch.
Moving your compliance records shouldn't be a leap of faith. Caskwork proves itself against months you have already filed before you rely on it.
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Bring in what you filed
Your past returns come in from a spreadsheet or straight from the PDFs, and you confirm every figure before it is kept.
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Run both, side by side
Keep doing it your current way while you log in Caskwork. Each month, its figures are held against your filed ones, line by line.
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Switch when the numbers match
When the two have agreed for long enough to satisfy you, Caskwork becomes your books. We help with your opening balances along the way.
Built on a working floor
Designed inside a distillery, not a boardroom.
Caskwork is built hands-on with Duluth Whiskey Project, a craft distillery in Duluth, Minnesota, as founding design partner. Their production runs, their barrel program and their real TTB workflow shape every screen before any of it ships to you.
Who's behind it
Twenty years of software for regulated work.
Caskwork is built by Alex Evans, a Minnesota software engineer who spent two decades building systems for healthcare (electronic health records and medical imaging), where the records have to be right, every time. Distilleries deserve the same rigor, without the enterprise bloat.
Fair questions
FAQ
Does Caskwork file my reports for me?
Caskwork prepares your monthly TTB operational reports and federal excise tax return from your production records. You review the numbers and submit them. Nothing is filed without your sign-off.
What does it cost?
Pricing hasn't been set yet, on purpose. It is being worked out in conversation with the first distilleries, so it fits how craft distilleries actually run rather than a guess made in advance. Write in and we'll talk it through.
Will Caskwork be sold or taken over?
Caskwork is privately owned and bootstrapped. It has taken no venture capital, will not take any, and will not be sold to a private equity firm. It is built to be a lasting, profitable small company, not a company built to be flipped.
What about state filings?
Federal TTB reporting comes first. Home-state filing support is on the roadmap, starting with Minnesota.
We keep everything in spreadsheets. Can we switch mid-year?
Yes. You bring in the returns you've already filed, set your opening balances (spirits on hand, barrels in storage) and log from there, side by side with how you do it today until the numbers agree. During early access we do the migration with you.
What size distillery is this for?
Craft distilleries. If you're running a still, filling barrels, and handling your own TTB filings, Caskwork is built for you. Larger operation with a bigger team? We'd especially like to hear from you during early access. Tell us what you'd need.
Is my production data secure?
Yes. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest, hosted on AWS, and never shared or sold. Each distillery's records are isolated from every other customer's. The specifics (where it lives, who can see it, how long it is kept, and what cannot be deleted) are in How Caskwork handles your data.
Who owns my data?
You do. You can take your monthly figures, TTB forms and documents out yourself today, and a complete export of everything is done for you on request at no charge. A self-serve full export is on the roadmap ahead of general availability. No lock-in, no hostage data. How to get it out, and what happens when you leave, is written down.
Spend your time on the spirit, not the paperwork.
Caskwork is opening to a small group of early-access distilleries, a few at a time. Write in and you'll hear back from Alex, not a sales team. If you're nearby, he'd rather visit.