For the house, not the trade
A liquor inventory app for the home bar
Barello is a home cellar and bar app that tells you what to open tonight, what to keep, and what you can mix from what you have. For the bar, that comes down to three answers from one shelf: what's in the house, which open bottles are fading, and what you can make tonight.
Photograph the bar and it's in. One photo of the shelf and Barello reads every label it can see; you tick the ones that are right. From then on it keeps track of when each bottle was opened and what it can make, and the whole house sees the same shelf.
How long an open bottle keeps
Spirits keep. The bottles that fade once they're open are the ones built on wine or sugar, so Barello asks when you opened each one and only speaks up where it counts.
| Bottle | Barello flags it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vermouth | After 2 months open | A fortified wine, so it fades like one once the air gets in |
| Liqueur | After 18 months open | Sugar holds it up. Cream liqueurs are the exception: follow the label |
| Aperitif, the Campari kind | After 2 years open | High in sugar and alcohol, so it stays steady |
| Gin, whisky, rum, vodka, brandy | No flag | A neat spirit keeps for years once it's open |
These are the thresholds the app runs on. A flag is a nudge to taste before you serve, not a verdict: nothing here spoils, it just stops being what you bought.
What to record for each bottle
Less than you'd think. The category (gin, aperitif, vermouth), the size, what it cost, when you opened it, and how many of the same bottle you've got. Barello reads the labels from a photo, one bottle or the whole shelf; you add the date and the price.
Fill level is the one everyone asks about, and it's mostly guesswork. Barello doesn't track it. It asks when you opened the bottle instead, because for the bottles that fade, that's the number that matters.
Sip it or mix it, and what a nip costs
A bottle of red bitters and a bottle of single malt aren't the same kind of thing, and a shelf app that treats them the same will offer you a neat pour of the bitters. Barello sorts each spirit into one you sip or one you mix.
Give a bottle a price and a size and it works out what a nip costs. A 700ml bottle holds 23 standard 30ml nips (1 oz shots), so the price divided by 23 is roughly what each pour costs you, and the neat pour turns up on tonight's list beside the cocktails, priced. An unpriced bottle is unpriced, not cheap; it never guesses.
Put one bottle in and see. About thirty seconds to join, and one photo per bottle.
Join freeWhat you can make tonight
The inventory is the shelf the cocktail matching runs on. Every recipe carries its own rule per ingredient, so sweet and dry vermouth count as two things, and a missing garnish never blocks a drink. The free cocktail finder does the same sums from a tick list, without saving anything; the app keeps the shelf.
Building the bar from scratch? The six bottles that cover the most drinks are worked out against every recipe in the library.
When it's finished
Mark a bottle finished and it leaves the inventory, so the Bar stops offering you a Negroni from an empty bottle of gin. On the way out it asks one question: would we buy this again? That's the whole re-buy list, built one bottle at a time.
The wine is on the same shelf
Most bar apps stop at the bar. In Barello the gin sits in the same inventory as the Barossa Shiraz, with the wine carrying its drinking window, adjusted for where you keep it. Tonight's answer can be a cocktail or a bottle, from one list the whole house shares. More on keeping both in one place.
What Barello doesn't do
No fill level and no pour log; the opened date does that job for the bottles where it matters. No barcode scanning; it reads the label from a photo instead. No shop and no marketplace.
Questions people ask
What should a home bar inventory app do?
Three things. Tell you what's in the house, tell you which open bottles are fading, and tell you what you can make from it tonight. Barello does all three, keeps the wine in the same inventory, and shares the lot with the household. It's free to use, and the homepage says what joining early gets you.
How long does an opened bottle of vermouth last?
Barello flags an open vermouth for tasting once it's been open 2 months. Vermouth is a fortified wine, so it fades far faster than a spirit. The flag means taste it before you serve it, not that it's spoiled.
How long do liqueurs and aperitifs keep once opened?
Longer than vermouth. Barello flags a liqueur after 18 months open and a Campari-style aperitif after 2 years, because sugar and alcohol hold them up. Cream liqueurs are the exception: follow the label.
Do spirits go off once they're opened?
Not in a way that matters at home. Gin, whisky, rum, vodka and brandy keep for years once open, so Barello doesn't flag them at all.
Does Barello track how much is left in a bottle?
No. It tracks how many of each bottle you have, and when you opened it. For vermouth, aperitifs and liqueurs, the bottles that fade once they're open, it tells you when one has been open long enough to be worth tasting before you serve it.
Can I add my whole bar at once?
Yes. Photograph the shelf and Barello reads every label it can see, then lists them for you to tick. A bottle that's hidden or turned away gets its own photo.
Can I add a bottle without typing it in?
Yes. One photo and Barello reads the label. You check what it found, add the price and the day you opened it if you want the nip cost and the fading note, and it's in.
Is there a free home bar inventory app?
Barello is free to use, and the homepage says what joining early gets you. The cocktail finder, which works out what you can make from a tick list, is free with no sign-up at all.
See your own shelf do this. About thirty seconds to join, one photo per bottle, and it's free to use.
Join freeNot ready for that? The cocktail finder is free and needs no sign-up. Weighing up other apps? There's a roundup of the best cocktail apps, side by side.