How to count wine stock in your pub

Last updated: 26 June 2026

Most pubs count wine stock once a quarter and wonder why the numbers never add up. The truth is, if you’re only counting once every three months, you’re counting losses, not stock. A 1% slip on wet sales quietly costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 a year—and the slip usually starts with wine and spirits, where over-pouring and poor cellar conditions hide the damage until it’s too late. The right routine catches it weekly, before it becomes a problem.

You’re probably running on a spreadsheet, a till system, or a mix of both—and none of it quite adds up. What you need is a system that actually matches what you poured against what you sold, and tells you the variance the same day. This article walks you through the exact method I use at my own pub, from the equipment you need to the reconciliation that actually works.

By the end of this, you’ll know how to count wine and spirits so accurately that your weekly variance becomes a number you can trust, and you’ll spot theft, waste, and measurement error the moment it happens.

Why Weekly Wine Counts Matter More Than Quarterly Stock Checks

Counting wine stock weekly is the only way to catch losses in real time. Most pub licensees treat stock counts as a once-a-quarter compliance tick—get the brewery rep in, count everything, file it away. By then, if there’s a £2,000 variance, you have no idea where it came from or when it started.

When I first took over my pub, I was running stock on a tangle of spreadsheets and still losing track of partial kegs and spirit measures. I switched to a weekly count around a dipstick and a set of scales, and the variance went from guesswork to a number I could trust within a fortnight. That single change meant I could actually see whether the problem was cellar temperature, over-pouring, or something worse.

The number that actually matters is wet gross profit by line, not a single headline stock figure. Spirits hide losses in over-pouring (a free-poured 25ml is often 32–35ml). Draught hides it in poor cellar temperature and bad line cleaning waste. And most stock ‘theft’ is actually measurement error and forgotten wastage. You won’t find it if you’re only counting every ninety days.

A proper weekly line check catches the slip when it’s small enough to fix. In my experience, most pubs that move from a messy spreadsheet to a disciplined weekly count claw back 1–2 gross profit points within a couple of months. That’s not a guess—that’s what happens when you stop guessing and start measuring.

The Equipment You Actually Need to Count Wine Accurately

You don’t need expensive kit. You need three things: a dipstick for casks, a set of scales for spirits, and a record sheet—either paper or digital.

Dipstick for Casks and Partial Kegs

A dipstick is a marked ruler you lower into a cask to read the depth of liquid. Most wholesalers can supply one for a few quid. If you’re ordering from a cash and carry, ask for one. Write the capacity of each cask on a label on the cask itself—you’ll use this to calculate how much is left. A dipstick removes guesswork; you get a number you can trust.

Scales (Digital Kitchen Scales)

Any set of digital kitchen scales will do. Weigh open spirit bottles to the nearest gram. You need to know the empty weight of each bottle (mark it on the bottle with a permanent marker), so you can subtract it from the full weight and know how much spirit is left. This takes one minute per bottle.

A Count Sheet (Paper or Digital)

You can use a simple spreadsheet, a notebook, or—if you want the count integrated with your other pub data—a tool built for this purpose. The StockTap pub stock app is designed so you can log counts on your phone or tablet, and it pulls your till data at the same time so you can reconcile immediately. But a spreadsheet works fine if you’re disciplined about filling it in the same day.

Whatever you use, the sheet must include: item name, bin code, opening stock, closing stock, sales (from till), variance, and a notes column for any adjustments (free pours, staff drinks, breakage).

The Step-by-Step Count Method That Works

Step 1: Choose Your Count Day and Time

Pick one day a week—ideally a Monday morning, before service—and do the count at the same time. Consistency means you’re always measuring the same thing (stock at opening, sales across the previous week). Fifteen minutes before opening is ideal because the bar is quiet and the till is fresh from the weekend.

Step 2: Count Casks and Partial Kegs First

For each cask in the cellar, use your dipstick to measure the depth. Multiply the depth by the volume per inch (this is marked on the cask or on your cheat sheet) to get the litres remaining. Write it down. Do this for every cask, every partial keg, and every container you’re tracking. This takes 10 minutes if you’re organised.

Step 3: Weigh Every Open Spirit Bottle

Pick up each open bottle, place it on the scales, and write down the weight. Subtract the empty bottle weight to get the liquid weight. For spirits, 1 kilogram = roughly 1.3 litres (the density of alcohol is less than water). So if a bottle weighs 400g of liquid, you have roughly 0.5 litres left. Record this for every open bottle on your sheet.

Step 4: Measure Wine Bottles (the Simple Way)

For wine bottles in bins or on shelves, count by the bottle and estimate the remaining percentage. If a bottle is three-quarters full, record it as 0.75 bottles. If it’s half-empty, record 0.5. This is less precise than scales, but it’s fast and it’s good enough—wine margins are tight, so even a small loss stands out. You can also use the same scale method as spirits if you want absolute precision.

Step 5: Pull Till Data for the Same Period

At the end of your count, pull your till report for the previous seven days. Filter for wine and spirit sales. Get a total figure for how much you sold in litres and in pounds. This is the reconciliation benchmark.

How to Reconcile Wine Stock Against Till Data

This is where the real insight lives. The maths is simple.

Closing Stock + Sales = Opening Stock + Purchases (minus variance).

In plain English: whatever you sold, plus whatever you’ve got left, should equal what you started with plus what you bought. If it doesn’t, the difference is your variance—and your variance tells you where the problem is.

The Reconciliation Formula

For each wine line:

• Opening stock (from last week’s count): 20 litres
• Purchases this week (from your delivery note): 5 litres
• Till sales this week: 18 litres
• Closing stock (from today’s count): 5.5 litres
• Variance: Opening (20) + Purchases (5) − Sales (18) − Closing (5.5) = 1.5 litres unaccounted for

That 1.5 litres is your loss. It’s either over-pouring (your 175ml glasses are actually 195ml), cellar waste (bad temperature, oxidation), or measurement error (you miscounted). You need to know which.

If the variance is small and consistent (under 2–3% of sales), it’s usually over-pouring or normal wastage. If it spikes one week, something went wrong that week—check for breakage, temperature swings, or staff changes. If it’s negative (you have more stock than the maths says you should), you’ve measured wrong somewhere, or someone’s been adding stock you didn’t record.

Do this reconciliation the same day you count. Don’t wait until the end of the month. The data is hot, and you can ask staff about that spike immediately while it’s still fresh.

Common Mistakes That Hide Wine Losses

Mistake 1: Forgetting to Account for Staff Drinks and Complimentary Pours

If you’ve written off a bottle for staff tasting or given a customer a free glass, you must record it in your count sheet’s notes column. Otherwise your variance will never add up, and you’ll think you’re losing stock when you’re just not accounting for what you gave away. Keep a separate line on your till for “staff drinks” or run a staff drinks log if you’re generous with tastings.

Mistake 2: Counting at Different Times Each Week

If one week you count on Monday morning and the next week you count on Wednesday evening, you’re measuring different stock positions—one includes three days of sales, the other includes five days. Your variance numbers become meaningless. Same time, same day, every week.

Mistake 3: Not Recording Partial Bottles Properly

A half-empty wine bottle left on the bar after service is easy to forget about. By the time you count, it’s either been thrown away or someone’s topped it up with something else. Always consolidate open bottles into one container at the end of service, date it, and count it as a separate line item on your sheet. You’ll catch the leakage.

Mistake 4: Assuming Your Till is Accurate

Your till tells you what rang through, not what actually left the cellar. If your staff are ringing items under the wrong SKU, or if the till SKU doesn’t match your stock SKU, your reconciliation is broken. Spend an hour mapping your till items to your stock items. Make sure every wine line on your till has a matching line on your stock sheet, and they have the same name so you can match them when you reconcile.

Mistake 5: Not Adjusting for Temperature

Draught beer and wine are temperature-sensitive. A 5°C swing in your cellar can change the volume in a cask by 0.5–1%. If your cellar thermostat is broken, or if you’ve got a fridge malfunction, your stock count will vary wildly week-to-week even if nothing’s been stolen or wasted. Check your cellar temperature every time you count. It should be 10–13°C for lagers, 12–15°C for cask ale, and 7–10°C for wine. If it’s swinging, that’s your variance.

Recording Results So You Spot Trends

A one-off count is interesting. A weekly count over four weeks tells you whether you’ve got a problem. Build a simple table that tracks variance by line, by week, so you can see patterns.

For example:

• Week 1: Sauvignon Blanc variance 0.5L (2.3%)
• Week 2: Sauvignon Blanc variance 1.2L (5.1%)
• Week 3: Sauvignon Blanc variance 0.8L (3.4%)
• Week 4: Sauvignon Blanc variance 2.1L (8.7%)

Week 4 is a spike. Did you change staff? Did the fridge break? Did someone leave a bottle open in the cellar? That’s your clue to investigate. Without the trend, you miss it.

The SmartPubTools platform can track this automatically if you log your counts weekly, but a spreadsheet with a simple line chart will do. The point is: you’re looking for patterns, not perfection. Perfect counts don’t exist. But consistent counts tell you what normal is, so you can spot abnormal.

A normal weekly variance for wine and spirits is 2–4% of sales. Anything below 2% means you’re measuring very accurately or very lucky. Anything above 4% needs investigation. If you’re running 5–6%, you’ve got a serious leak in over-pouring, temperature, or something worse.