A running log of what we build for Home Bar Hero, and why. New pours at the top.
Ask the Barkeep anything and it now answers with your own bottles by name, gives you every drink you can make when you ask for the whole menu, and puts a Save or a shopping button under anything it suggests. Nothing to do on your side, it is already pouring.
Why:
Wine does not stand on a shelf, so it stopped trying. Scan a wine bottle now and it rests in the Cellar, a second room inside the same bar, with the producer, varietal, region and year read straight off the label. Tap it and it flips to a researched back label: a tasting note, what to eat with it, how to serve it, and the years it drinks best. Flip the room into its list and the whole cellar sorts by that window, so the top is the answer to what should I open next. Your bar has three rooms now: Shelf, Cellar and Kitchen. Free cellars paint six bottles, favorites first, then the oldest, and Top Shelf paints every one. The app update carrying the Cellar is with the App Store and Google Play now.
Why: Two members asked for a cellar out loud in the Open Bar, and plenty of people were already scanning wine into a room that did not exist yet.
Three new pours. Your bar has a text only list view now, a quick A to Z of every bottle you own. The AI now aims its inventions at drinks the community does not already have; create a recipe the community has never seen, any way you like, and the app notices, calls it an original, and offers to share it under your name, with the newest ones on the New Originals shelf in Discover. And you can now export your bar from Profile and Security, your whole shelf as a spreadsheet file, because your bar is yours. The app update carrying these is with the App Store and Google Play now.
Why: All three came straight from community requests.
One room for everyone who uses the app. Post the drink you just made, swap tasting notes, start a thread, react to somebody's pour, and ask the Barkeep questions right in the room. There are house rules, a member directory, and a proud tradition of lurking. Reading the room is free for every member, and pulling up a stool to post, reply, react, and leave tasting notes is a Top Shelf perk. Find it inside the app whenever you want company.
Why: Home bartending is better with other people around, and a single shared room beats a feed shouting into the void.
The app is now organized around three tabs. Bar is your shelf. Make finds you a drink in two lanes: find one you can make right now, or create something new. Discover is what's new around the app, from packs to bars worth following. Fewer taps between you and a finished cocktail.
Why: The old layout grew one shortcut at a time. This one starts from what you actually came to do.
Ask for a drink and the Barkeep writes the full recipe right in the chat, ready to save with one tap. It reads your bottle photos, checks real recipes on the web when you ask for the classic version, remembers your conversation, and can add bottles to your bar for you. Chatting with it stays free.
Why: An AI bartender should hand you the recipe, not a link and a shrug.
New here, or coming back to an empty bar? The app now opens with one simple move: snap your first bottle. The shelf builds itself from there, and the tour waits until you have something on it worth touring.
Why: Nearly half of new bars never got their first bottle. The camera is the fastest way in.
Bars have followers now. Tap "Pull up a stool" on a friend's bar and you're a Regular: you see the recipes they share with their people, and they get a ping that you sat down. Every recipe you create stays private until you share it, with just yourself, with your Regulars, or with the whole community. Invite links survive install and signup, and a bar can go full Speakeasy (invite-only) whenever it wants.
Why: Your best recipes were all-or-nothing: screenshot them to the group chat or publish them to the whole internet. Now your circle gets a seat.
Menus are real, named things now: Tiki Night, Holiday 2026, the block party list. Add any drink (catalog or your own), reorder it, and pick which menu your Party Host QR code shows. Guests scan and see a clean drinks list with no login; your Regulars, signed in, see the full recipes behind the same menu. Edits go live the moment you save. Free accounts run one menu; Top Shelf keeps unlimited.
Why: One QR code should be able to host every occasion without rebuilding the list each time.
Free accounts get 20 AI credits a day, resetting at midnight Central, instead of 20 a week. And Top Shelf supporters stock their bar for free: scans and bottle identification never touch their credits.
Why: A week is a long time to wait when you burned your credits stocking the bar on Saturday.
Talking to the AI bartender no longer costs credits, on any account. It also got a serious rebuild: answers stream in live, it remembers your conversation, you can send it photos of bottles and drinks, and every suggestion comes back as a tappable recipe card with a one-line taste description.
Why: The bartender who knows your bar shouldn't have a meter running while you decide what to pour.
Recipe matching now understands substitutions. Out of ginger syrup but holding ginger liqueur? The drink shows up anyway, tagged "Ready, with a sub", with a chip explaining the swap. The calculators and Ask AI honor subs too.
Why: A near-miss you can actually pour tonight was being counted as a miss.
Long-press the shelf to enter arrange mode: bottles jiggle, you drag them wherever you want, and Save Config locks in the layout. Own two of the same bottle? It stacks as one with a quantity count and a stepper.
Why: It's your bar. It should sit the way your real shelf sits.
A new pack built for crowds, with recipes measured in cups, liters, and whole bottles instead of ounces. Big-batch units are now part of the recipe system.
Why: Nobody makes fifteen individual margaritas at a pool party.
A realtime chat room with the founder in it, included with Top Shelf Annual and Lifetime. Upgrade and an invite from Brett lands in your inbox with a link to your seat. Members see what's being built next and steer it.
Why: The people funding the app should have the loudest voice in where it goes.
New signups get a five-stop tour that highlights the real interface, not screenshots: add bottles, see your matches, visit Flavor Lab, share your bar, find the community. Replayable anytime from Home settings.
Why: The fastest way to a first cocktail is being shown, not told.
Scan a bottle the catalog has never seen and the AI enrolls the new bottle type on the fly, so it lands on your shelf correctly instead of coming back unknown. Packs also picked up story-first cards and a better card-by-card builder the same day.
Why: Your obscure amaro shouldn't be the app's problem to not understand.
Juices, syrups, mixers, bitters, and garnishes moved into their own Kitchen & Mixers section with a full staples catalog, so the shelf stays pure bottles. Need something the catalog doesn't have? Add Other enrolls it with AI help.
Why: Lime juice is essential, but it doesn't belong next to the bourbon.
The Pack Builder opened to everyone: craft a themed pack card by card with AI help, then publish it to the community (moderated) or keep it private behind a code you share. Five dollars a pack, or included credits for supporters. Packs became searchable, and public pack recipes got shareable pages.
Why: The best themed collections were always going to come from you, not us.
Dial in a taste with sliders (sweet, sour, bitter, boozy, and more) and the AI invents a complete, balanced cocktail: name, story, and full recipe. Flip on "only my bar" and it builds with just the bottles you own.
Why: Sometimes you don't want to find a drink. You want the drink that doesn't exist yet.
Themed, flip-through collections of cocktails you save or skip one card at a time, starting with Summer Pack 2026. New drops go live without an app update.
Why: A good pack is a night planned for you: theme, stories, and ten drinks that belong together.
One optional upgrade, priced like a bottle instead of a cable bill: monthly, annual, or $49.99 once for lifetime. Supporters get a much bigger daily AI allowance, their whole bar rendered as AI shelf art, and Party Host Mode. Everything essential stays on the free tier, with no ads anywhere.
Why: The app should be funded by the people who love it, not by ads or a paywall in front of the recipes.
The bar became a real place: every bottle rendered as shelf art on a realistic shelf. Shared Bars let couples and roommates pool bottles into one inventory, and every recipe can display in oz, ml, or cl.
Why: An inventory list tells you what you own. A shelf makes it feel like yours.