QR code menu for breweries and taprooms

A QR code menu for a brewery taproom is a tap list on the guest's phone that's right tonight: this week's releases, every pour size, flights, and nothing that kicked an hour ago. With Menuthere, guests scan a code on the table or the bar, read the list without an app, and, if you switch it on, order pours to their table in the taproom or the beer garden. Menuthere takes 0% commission, and table codes and ordering are on the Free plan.

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What makes a taproom different

The Brewers Association defines a taproom brewery as one that sells 25 percent or more of its beer on-site and "does not operate significant food services". A brewpub sells the same share on-site but runs a real kitchen. That split decides what your QR menu holds:

For a bar's general setup (happy hour on a timer, rounds on one bill, last call), see the digital menu for bars. This page covers what a brewery adds.

A tap list, built for QR ordering

Two things to know before you build flights. "Up to 4" is a maximum, so a guest could pick three; say "choose 4" in the item's name if you price for four. And each flight option lists today's beers, so when a keg kicks, remove it from the flight group as well as switching off the pint: a single add-on option has no off switch of its own.

When a keg kicks

Switch the beer off on the Menu screen and guests see it as Unavailable, on every table code and in the read-only menu, without reprinting anything. Switch off one size alone if you're down to the last few tasters. When the next batch goes on, add it as a new item, or edit last month's item if it's the same recipe. Printed codes always open the list as it is now.

Taprooms without a kitchen: food trucks

A truck parked outside is common, but a Menuthere cart belongs to one business, so a guest can't put your pint and the truck's tacos in one order. What works:

• Put the truck's code on your table card. The free table QR card maker holds up to three codes: your tap list, the truck's menu link and your Wi-Fi.
• If the truck uses Menuthere, it has its own store and table codes. See QR code menus for food trucks.
• Snacks you sell yourself (pretzels, chips) go on your own list as items.

Checking ID

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 has every state prohibit people under 21 from buying or publicly possessing alcohol. Menuthere has no age check at checkout, so treat a phone order like an order at the bar: staff check ID when they bring the beer to the table. Two settings help:

• Pay after the beer arrives. On Lite, "Ask payment after order complete" sends table orders in unpaid; the guest gets a Pay now button once you complete the order, so nobody pays for a pour they're refused.
• Keep to-go orders pickup-only and check ID at handoff. Whether you may sell cans or crowlers to go, and how, is set by your state's alcohol rules, so check with your state regulator before you list them.

Beer gardens and big patios

Name table codes after where they are ("Garden 12", "Patio 3") so a runner finds the table in a crowd. Geo-lock only lets a table order through when the phone is within the distance you pick from your map pin: 100 m, 200 m, 500 m or 1 km. A large beer garden may need 200 m. Phones are rarely exact outdoors near buildings, so up to 150 m of the phone's own error is allowed on top. More in how to stop prank QR orders.

A table code in the sun gets read from further away and with glare. A code on a garden table card read from the seat needs about 3.5 cm for a short link; on a post or fence read from a few steps, size it with the QR code size calculator, and print on matte card.

A worked example: a Friday flight order

Garden 12 orders a flight and two pints, and a can 4-pack to take home.

The order reaches the bar marked "Garden 12". The runner checks ID at the table, staff mark it completed, and the guest pays with Pay now: by card at Stripe's standard US price of 2.9% + 30¢, the fee is $1.52 ($1.22 + $0.30). Menuthere's commission is $0. Kitchen tickets print without prices, and the ticket and the bill print as separate jobs, so the ticket can print at the bar. To price pours for margin, try the free drinks GP calculator.

What a taproom QR menu costs

A busy taproom passes the Free plan's 50 orders on its first Friday, so treat Free as a trial run. Lite and Pro start with a 7-day free trial; adding a card starts it.

Not a fit if

• You run open tabs with a card held on file. Use pay after the order instead, or keep tabs at the bar.
• You need an ID scan at checkout. Staff check ID when serving.
• Guests must order from your bar and the food truck in one cart. Each business has its own cart.
• Tables split one check in the app. Each guest can order and pay for their own on their own phone.
• Your POS must receive the orders. Menuthere has no ready-made link to Square, Toast or Clover.

Set up your taproom's QR code menu

1. Create your store. Search for your brewery on Google to fill in the name, address and photos, or start by hand.
2. Build the tap list. Add each beer with its pour sizes, and put style, ABV and hops in the description.
3. Add flights and to-go. Make a flight item with an "Up to 4" beer group, and list cans and crowlers you're allowed to sell to go.
4. Add your tables. Add them in bulk with prefixes such as "Bar", "Patio" or "Garden", up to 50 at a time.
5. Pin the brewery and set geo-lock. Set your map pin and pick a distance that covers the beer garden.
6. Test it. Order a flight from a garden table, then switch off a beer and check it's gone from the flight and the list.

Table codes and ordering are free, with 0% commission.

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