> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://brewgravity.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inventory

> Knowing what you actually have before you plan what to brew.

Inventory is a flat list of ingredients you physically own, independent of any
recipe. It exists to answer one question at the moment it matters: *do I have
enough Citra for this, or am I ordering again?*

## Categories

Every item belongs to one of four categories, and the category decides which
fields are worth filling in:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Fermentables">
    Grain, sugar, extract, adjuncts. Track **colour (SRM)** and **extract
    yield**, plus origin if you care which maltster it came from. Amounts are
    usually in kilograms.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Hops">
    Track **alpha acid** and **crop year** — both matter, and both are on the
    packet. Hops lose alpha acid in storage, so a three-year-old packet of
    Magnum is not the ingredient your recipe thinks it is. Amounts are usually
    in grams.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Yeast">
    Track **form** (liquid or dry) and **attenuation**. Amounts are packs, grams,
    or millilitres depending on what you buy.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Misc">
    Finings, salts, spices, flavourings. A **type** and an amount is usually all
    you need.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

Each item also takes freeform **notes** — where you bought it, when it opened,
how it smelled last time.

## Units are yours

Amounts carry their own unit, as text. If you buy hops in ounces and grain in
pounds, write ounces and pounds. Brewgravity does not convert or police inventory
units, because the useful number here is the one printed on the bag in your
freezer.

## A workflow that holds up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Enter what you have when it arrives">
    Adding a hop order takes about a minute and is the only part of this that
    requires discipline.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check inventory while planning">
    Before committing to a recipe, look at what is on hand. Substituting at the
    planning stage is a design choice; substituting on brew day is a scramble.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Draw it down after brew day">
    Update amounts once the beer is in the fermenter, while you still remember
    what went in.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Inventory does not deduct itself when you brew, by design — the amount you
  weighed out is rarely the amount the recipe said, and a system that silently
  guesses wrong is worse than one that waits for you to tell it.
</Note>

## Via the API

Inventory is fully available over the [API](/docs/api-reference/introduction) and
through the [MCP server](/docs/api-reference/mcp), including search. If you keep
stock in a spreadsheet today, a short script can push it in once and keep it
current from then on.