Craft beverage producers
Books and taxes for meaderies.
A honey bill that moves with the market, a traditional mead aging for years before it is ever bottled, fruit for melomels, and a tasting room carrying most of your sales. Gus sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
February came in at $9,200. The Valentine's mead sets sold well, and I kept your fruit costs for the melomel batch apart from your honey bill so you can see what each recipe really costs.
- Meadery tasting counter depositTasting room sales
- Online mead club shipmentDirect-to-consumer sales
- Draper's Super Bee ApiariesPurchased honey
- Mann Lake beekeeping suppliesApiary and hive costs
- Bottle and label orderBottles and labels
Why your books are different
A meadery's books go wrong around the honey and the wait.
A generalist sees a small batch and a tasting counter. Your business runs on a honey market that moves, a traditional mead that might sit for years before it is bottled, and fruit costs for a melomel that need their own line. When the books do not separate all that, a small operation cannot tell what is actually working.
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1
Honey costs swing with the season and the source
Honey bought after a good spring flow costs less than honey bought later in a tight year, and prices move enough that one recipe's cost can shift meaningfully between batches.
What we doTracks what each honey purchase actually cost, so a batch's real cost is based on what you paid, not a guess. -
2
Your own hives and purchased honey get lumped together
If you keep bees yourself, hive equipment, bee packages, and extraction costs are very different from a bulk honey order from a supplier. Combined into one line, you cannot tell whether your own apiary is actually saving you money.
What we doKeeps apiary costs separate from purchased honey, so a decision to expand your own hives is based on real numbers. -
3
A traditional mead ages for years, not months
Honey and yeast for a long-aged traditional mead go out the door long before that batch is ever bottled and sold, sometimes years later. Expensed the day it is paid, a small operation's numbers swing wildly for no real reason.
What we doKeeps honey and aging mead in inventory until the batch is bottled and sold, so a multi-year batch does not distort the year it was started. -
4
Fruit for a melomel gets mixed into the honey bill
A fruited mead needs real fruit, fresh or frozen, on top of the honey, and that cost is easy to bury inside the general honey line, making it hard to price a fruited batch correctly.
What we doKeeps fruit and other flavoring costs in their own line, so each recipe's real cost is visible.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a meadery.
Set up once for how you get paid and what you spend. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Tasting room salesSmall pours and bottle sales sold right at the mead bar.
- Direct-to-consumer salesOnline orders and mead club shipments.
- Farmers market and festival salesBooth sales at markets and mead festivals.
- Wholesale case salesAccounts and small distributors, kept apart from retail.
Money out
- Purchased honeyBulk honey from suppliers like Draper's Super Bee Apiaries or Dutch Gold Honey.
- Apiary and hive costsHives, bee packages, and extraction equipment from suppliers like Mann Lake.
- Fruit and flavoring costsFresh or frozen fruit for melomels, kept apart from the honey bill.
- Bottles and labelsGlass bottles, corks, and label printing for each release.
- Tasting room staff wagesCounter staff and event help, kept apart from cellar work.
- Cellar equipmentFermentation tanks and bottling gear, logged so they get written off right.
- Insurance and permitsLiquor liability coverage and your federal and state meadery permits.
What we watch for you
- Cost per batch
Honey, fruit, and aging time added up per batch, so pricing is based on what a recipe really costs.
- Honey cost trend
What you are paying per pound over time, so a supplier or a season change shows up early.
- Mead in aging
What is aging but not yet bottled, since some batches sit for years, not months.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so April is a number you already knew.
Ask Gus
Things meadery owners ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Your supplier raised prices after a tighter spring flow. I tracked the real cost for this batch, so your pricing can reflect it instead of guessing.
No. The honey and labor for that batch sit in inventory until it is bottled and sold. Starting it does not make this year look worse than it is.
I kept your apiary costs separate from purchased honey, so you can compare them directly. That call on expanding hives is worth a real accountant's input, since it touches more than just this year's cost.
The tax side
The tax side of running a meadery.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing, since mead can age longer than almost anything else in this business. Honey and fruit sitting in a tank for years, and an excise tax bucket nobody separated from income tax.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Federal excise tax on meadA bonded meadery generally owes federal excise tax on mead it removes from bond for sale, separate from its income tax return and based on volume and alcohol content. Rates are not something to guess at. Goatkeeper keeps the books clean for whoever files that return, it does not file it.
- Honey and aging mead as inventoryHoney, fruit, and mead still aging only reduce taxable income when the finished batch is sold, not when the honey or fruit is bought. This matters even more here, since some batches age for years.
- Fermentation tanks and bottling equipmentCellar equipment can usually be written off the year you buy it, with bonus depreciation at 100 percent for property placed in service after January 19, 2025.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated meaderies can take up to 20 percent of business profit off taxable income. It comes out right when tasting room, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer sales are kept separate all year.
Deductions meaderies miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Purchased honey
- Fruit for melomels
- Apiary and hive equipment
- Bottles and labels
- Liquor liability insurance
- Federal alcohol permit and bond fees
- Tasting room glassware
- Farmers market and festival booth fees
- Fermentation tank repairs
- Mead club software fees
- Refrigeration and cold storage
- Staff uniforms with your logo
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A meadery year, kept every month.
Your batches might take years, but your return is still due on the same schedule as everyone else. Gus keeps the two straight. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, batches still aging get logged, and you get a monthly set-aside so the excise tax bucket stays separate and April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your income tax return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since January no matter how long a batch is still aging.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether a new release or a batch coming out of aging changed the number.
- October
Before the holiday push
Before holiday gift sets and gatherings pick up demand, Gus looks at equipment worth buying and anything to do before December.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for meaderies. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions meadery owners ask first.
Can Gus track what each batch of mead actually costs?
Yes. He tracks honey, fruit, and aging time per batch, so pricing is based on what a recipe really costs, not a rough guess.
We keep our own bees. Can Gus keep that separate from honey we buy?
Yes. Apiary costs and purchased honey are kept in their own lines, so you can compare which one actually saves you money.
Our traditional mead will not be bottled for two years. Does that hurt this year's numbers?
No. The honey and labor for that batch stay in inventory until it is bottled and sold, so starting a long batch does not make this year look worse than it is.
Who actually files our federal excise tax return?
Not Goatkeeper. That return is separate from your income tax filing and belongs to whoever prepares your excise tax paperwork. Gus keeps your batch and sales records tidy so that job is never a scramble.
Most of our sales are direct to customers, not wholesale. Does that change the books?
No. Gus keeps tasting room, online, and wholesale sales in their own categories either way, so you can see where your business actually comes from.
Our records are just a notebook by the fermenters. Can Gus work with that?
Yes. Send the bank statements you have. Gus sorts them into batches and channels from here forward, and the accountant checks it.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
More in craft beverage producers
We keep books for the business next door too.
- Bottle shops & craft beer stores
- Cideries
- Craft distilleries
- Custom-crush & alternating proprietor wineries
- Homebrew & winemaking supply shops
- Kombucha brewers
- Vineyards (grape growers)
- Brewpubs
- Coffee roasters
- Craft breweries & taprooms
- Liquor stores
- Non-alcoholic beverage brands
- Wineries & tasting rooms
- Arcade bars (barcades)
- Artisan cheese makers
- Bagel shops
- BBQ sauce & rub brands
- Beer gardens
- Candy & chocolate makers
- Charcuterie board & grazing table businesses
- Cigar lounges
- Commissary & shared commercial kitchens
- Cottage food producers
- Custom cake studios
- Dive bars & neighborhood taverns
- Farmers market vendors
- Food hall vendors
- Fudge & candy shops
- Honey producers & apiaries
- Hookah lounges
What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever