Cepaos for US cideries
Log every fruit lot, track fermentation tank by tank, trace each bottle back to its orchard block, and know your real cost per gallon — with hard cider pre-mapped to TTB Form 5120.17 and Avalara PA050400. The same production engine wineries use in Cepaos, working for your cidery.
Problem and benefit
Five real problems cideries face every season, and how Cepaos handles them versus a spreadsheet and a generic ERP.
| Problem and solution | Cepaos | Spreadsheet | Generic ERP |
|---|---|---|---|
Losing track of which apples went into which tank Every intake is logged by lot with pounds/kg, variety, °Brix, pH, acidity, time, and operator — linked to the destination tank | Yes | Partial | No |
Tracking fermentation on sticky notes and paper logs SG/density, °Brix, pH, temperature, volatile acidity, and SO₂ per tank with a dated analysis history; define your own stage names and the system counts days in each | Yes | Partial | No |
Not knowing which orchard block ended up in which batch Continuous traceability from orchard intake through tank and into each bottle, with QR codes per lot and exportable traceability certificates | Yes | No | Partial |
Manually mapping hard cider to the right tax code for TTB and sales tax Hard cider auto-routes to its TTB tax class (Form 5120.17) and Avalara product code PA050400 — no manual mapping every cycle | Yes | No | No |
Not knowing the real cost per gallon before pricing Costs accumulate per tank and are valued per lot, with shrinkage (racking losses, evaporation, breakage) logged at cost | Yes | Partial | Partial |
What's included
Six capabilities from Cepaos's production engine applied to hard cider — no adapters, no custom development.
Log every fruit delivery with variety (free text: Yarlington Mill, Dabinett, Kingston Black, Honeycrisp, or whatever you grow), weight in lbs or kg, °Brix, pH, acidity, start/end time, and operator. Each lot links to its orchard block and destination tank.
SG/density, °Brix, pH, volatile acidity, SO₂ (free and total), temperature, and estimated ABV per tank — with a dated analysis history that draws your fermentation curve. Name your own stages (keeving, primary, secondary, cold crash, conditioning) and the system counts days in each.
Cepaos pre-maps hard cider to the correct TTB 5120.17 tax class ("hard cider") and Avalara product code PA050400. The monthly cellar book lines are pulled automatically so your TTB report is ready in minutes, not hours.
Every bottle links to its tank, fruit lot, and the operations applied. QR code per lot and per tank, and an exportable traceability certificate for distributors, retailers, or state alcohol board inquiries.
Costs accumulate per tank and are valued per lot. Racking losses, evaporation, and breakage are logged with their cost so you know the real cost per gallon before you set a price.
Finished goods, dry goods, and bulk inventory in the same system as production — with movements tied to the lot. Commercial and invoicing modules included per plan.
No hype
Cepaos is a wine production platform whose engine is product-agnostic: variety and fermentation stage are free text, so the entire workflow — intake, fermentation per tank, racking, bottling, traceability, costs, and inventory — works the same with apples as with grapes. You'll see winery terminology on some screens.
What doesn't exist today: a dedicated cidery module, state-level cidery permit workflows (TTB Brewer's Notice vs Winemaker's Permit distinctions), or state ABC board cider-specific license flows. If that's what your cidery needs exclusively, we'll say it plainly before you pay — what we give you is the production, traceability, cost, and TTB tax-reporting foundation that hard cider compliance rests on.
Frequently asked questions
No — and we'll say that upfront. Cepaos was built for wine. What it has is a production engine where variety and fermentation stage are free-text fields, so your cidery logs apple varieties, fermentation stages, and lots exactly the way a winery logs grapes. You'll see winery terminology (winery, harvest) on some screens; the workflow — intake, fermentation, racking, bottling, traceability, costs — is the same one a cidery needs.
Cepaos pre-populates TTB Form 5120.17 from your cellar book entries. Hard cider products are detected by name and routed to the correct TTB tax class. You review, validate, and generate the filing package (signed PDF + CSV + pay.gov-ready XML). The actual submission to TTB goes through pay.gov or mail — Cepaos prepares the data, it does not replace TTB's filing portal.
Yes. The Avalara integration in Cepaos maps hard cider to product code PA050400, which covers cider, mead, and perry. State-level tax rates are determined per transaction by Avalara — Cepaos passes the correct product code so you're not manually overriding the classification each time.
Yes. The variety field is free text with no closed catalog: type Yarlington Mill, Dabinett, Kingston Black, Honeycrisp, or any blend you work with, and Cepaos carries it from intake through the tank to the bottled lot.
No. Cepaos handles production records, traceability, TTB reporting, and sales tax classification. State-level cidery permit workflows, ABC licensing, and farm winery/cidery distinctions are outside the scope of what Cepaos manages today.
Yes — that's exactly where Cepaos shines. It's a full wine platform (vineyard, cellar, US compliance) whose same production engine manages your cider lines as separate lots with their own varieties, tanks, and costs.
30-minute guided demo, no commitment. Fruit intake, fermentation logs, traceability, costs, and TTB reporting included in the production modules.
Cepaos is a production management and documentation tool. It does not manage state-level cidery permits, ABC licensing workflows, or substitute for TTB's own filing portal (pay.gov). TTB tax class and Avalara code mapping verified against lib/invoicing/ttb-online/service.ts and lib/integration/us-avalara/tax-determination.ts. Features described as of September 2026. For plan coverage see US compliance.