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HeadBartender — How To

HeadBartender in one minute: add the bottles on your shelf, and the app tells you what you can pour, what you are one bottle away from pouring, and what to buy next.

Start here

There is no setup and no account. The core app works offline. Open My Bar and add what you own — the more bottles you enter, the better every other tab gets.

The five tabs

My Bar

  • Add a bottle: tap + (top right). Scan the barcode — the camera identifies it automatically — or search by name, or tap Add Custom for anything unusual.
  • Keep levels honest: every bottle has a level indicator (Full → ¾ → Half → ¼ → Nearly Empty). Tap a bottle to update it. Accurate levels mean accurate matches.
  • Edit or remove: tap an item to edit its name, level or notes; swipe left to delete it.

Make

  • Every cocktail in the database, ranked by what you can actually pour.
  • Make Now — you have everything. Almost There — one ingredient missing, and the app tells you which. Explore — two or more missing, useful for planning.
  • Tap a cocktail for the full recipe: ingredients in oz and ml, technique, glassware, garnish, and a note on where the drink came from.
  • Tap Log Drink on the recipe to record that you made it — with a rating, notes and an optional photo.
  • Use the filter to narrow by flavor, occasion, complexity, origin, glass type or holiday.

Order

  • Your smart buy list, ranked by impact. The top item is the single bottle that unlocks the most new drinks.
  • Gap Fill items show exactly which cocktails a purchase would unlock. Restock flags what you are running low on. Exploratory suggests a direction you would probably enjoy.
  • Check Order before a liquor store run; buy the top item first.

History

  • Your drink journal — everything you logged, most recent first, with ratings, notes and photos.
  • Search by name, tap an entry to edit, swipe left to delete, tap Make Again to jump back to the recipe.
  • Tap the heart on any recipe to favorite it; favorites sort to the top.

Learn

  • The reference shelf: a glassware guide, mixing techniques, bartending vocabulary, and the app's settings.
  • Look here before shopping — the glassware guide tells you what a coupe is for and why it matters.

Scanning tips

  • Remove cellophane or tissue around the bottle neck.
  • Hold steady for half a second — the camera auto-focuses.
  • Many bottles carry a barcode on the bottom label; use it if the main label will not scan.
  • If a barcode is not in the built-in database, add the bottle by hand — search by name or tap Add Custom.

Good habits

  • Spend time on Almost There — the drinks one bottle away are often the interesting ones.
  • Log what you make. After a few months the 4- and 5-star entries tell you what you actually love.
  • Check the category when a bottle misbehaves — a bourbon entered as “Other Spirit” will not match bourbon drinks.

Privacy

Entirely local: inventory, history, notes and photos never leave your device. Barcode recognition matches against a database built into the app — no network request is made. See the HeadBartender privacy policy.

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