October 2026
Oct 21, 2026
Your bottles, drawn from your photos
Top Shelf can now draw your own bottles from the photos you scan with, so the shelf shows the bottle you have, not the stock picture: the 375 mL flask, the label in kanji, the one no search can find. Turn on Draw my bottles from this photo at the scan review, alone or with Keep this photo; each bottle's page can switch between your drawing and the system image, and Draw again makes a fresh one. Drawings show on your bar and your bar page; your photos stay private. Free while in testing, 25 a day. On the web now, and in the 4.1.11 update for iPhone and Android.
Why: Rare and foreign bottles rendered wrong from search; a photo of the actual bottle draws the real one. Tested all day on 21 October and opened to everyone the same afternoon, as a Top Shelf feature, free while the numbers come in.
shelfbar
Oct 21, 2026
Top Shelf features in one pill, and your free scans in plain sight
At the scan review, Keep this photo now sits with the other Top Shelf features in one small pill at the top: tap it to open, and your choices are remembered on your account. Free accounts see how many scans are left today right on the camera step, one scan per shot however many bottles are in it. While the labels are read, the glass fills. A bottle you already own is marked and never added twice, and the page no longer drifts sideways when you pull your bar open. On the web now, and in the 4.1.11 update for iPhone and Android.
Why: The first walk of the photo features on a phone on 21 October asked for three things: the group out of the way of the bottle list, the free allowance visible before a shot is framed, and the owned-bottle row to stop offering an add that never happened. Keeping a photo became a Top Shelf feature the same day.
shelfbar
Oct 20, 2026
Notes and your own photos on every bottle, now on your phone
Open any bottle for a private Notes card: rate it one to five and write where it lives or what you think of it. When you scan bottles in, add a note right there and keep the photo you took, and the bottle's page flips between its render and your own picture. Only you ever see any of it. Export My Bar now carries your notes and ratings, and Export with my photos packs your pictures in too. In the 4.1.10 update for iPhone and Android, and on the web.
Why: Notes, ratings and your own photos reached the web on 17 and 19 October; 4.1.10 brings them to the iPhone and Android apps, which is where most collectors scan their shelves.
shelfbar
Oct 19, 2026
A note and your own photo, written in when you scan a bottle
When you add bottles by camera, write a note for the whole shot or for one bottle, and keep the photo you took: the bottle's page now flips between its render and your own picture, with Replace and Remove under your notes. Only you ever see your photo. Export My Bar now carries your notes and ratings, and Export with my photos packs them into a zip with a page that shows every bottle with its picture. On the web, and in the 4.1.10 update of the iPhone and Android apps.
Why: A collector standing at the shelf knows where a bottle lives at the moment it goes in, not later; and a shelf of six hundred bottles is easier to search by your own photo than by a render.
shelfbar
Oct 17, 2026
Your own notes and a rating on every bottle, private to you
Open any bottle on your shelf and there is a Notes card under your price: tap a star to rate it one to five, and write where it lives or what you think of it, up to two hundred characters. Only you ever see it, never your bar page or a shared bar; it rides along only in your own export. The A-Z list finds bottles by your note words and shows your rating on the row. On the web, and in the 4.1.10 update of the iPhone and Android apps.
Why: A new member with six hundred spirits and three hundred wines needs to know which cupboard a bottle is in, and collectors keep asking for a place to say what they think of a bottle without telling the room.
shelfbar
Oct 13, 2026
One More Bottle: your next bottle, picked from your shelf
Home now leads with One More Bottle: bottles picked to fill out your shelf each day, a Wanted list for the ones you like, and Undo if you pass one by mistake. Tap any bottle, on Home, in Discover Spirits or on another member's bar, to see what it is, how rare it is on Home Bar Hero, and who else pours it, then visit their bar. Set your own price on any bottle you own and your bar value uses it; nobody else ever sees it. On the web and in the 4.1.8 update of the iPhone and Android apps.
Why: Members kept browsing each other's bars late into the night, and the bottle, not the cocktail, was what they were hunting.
discoverbar
Oct 9, 2026
Three of your bottles under each recipe line, the plainest first
A recipe page now names at most three of your bottles under each ingredient instead of counting the rest, and a flavored bottle like a coconut or spiced rum only comes up on a plain rum line when nothing plainer is on your shelf.
Why: A member with seventeen aged rums was reading a shelf inventory under his Mai Tai, with a coconut rum in it, and asked for three bottles that fit.
Oct 6, 2026
Back from a saved recipe returns you to your place in the pack
Tap Save & See Recipe on any card in a recipe pack, then go back, and you land on the card you were on instead of the first one. On the web today; the phone apps pick it up in their next update.
Why: Members flipping through a pack lost their place every time they saved a recipe and came back to it.
packs
Oct 6, 2026
The Barkeep answers in seconds, and the buttons under an answer match what it says
Ask the Barkeep now comes back inside half a minute every time, with an honest line instead of a long wait when a question stalls, and the add, save and shopping buttons under an answer match the drinks it actually recommends. A recipe written out in the chat saves with every pour in it, and a classic with a brand in front of its name shows its card instead of a second copy.
Why: A week of real conversations showed buttons that promised more than they delivered, a recipe that saved without one of its pours, and one member who waited a full minute for an error. All of it was server plumbing, fixed and proven against those same conversations.
barkeep
Oct 6, 2026
New recipe pack: Not Rum, The Apple Brandy Zombie
A new creator pack from This Is Tiki Bar leads Discover: Donn the Beachcomber's 1934 Zombie poured four ways with apple brandy in place of the rum. The pack opens with the video it came from, every card's Watch button starts the video at that pour, and a plain apple brandy stands in for the bonded and the unaged, so each card tells you whether you can make it tonight with what is on your shelf.
Why: The second creator pack, built with the creator from his own specs. Three apple brandies stacked the way Donn stacked three rums, and most home bars own one, so the stand-in rule is what makes the pack pourable.
Oct 2, 2026
Barkeep knows your whole shelf, and the recipe builder takes any ingredient
Ask the Barkeep now sees every bottle on your shelf, however big your bar, so it calls your bottles by name and never adds one you already own. On Make, the recipe builder shows its matches on a phone with the keyboard up and keeps any ingredient you type, and every recipe page now names which of your bottles to pour under each line.
Why: A member with a big bar kept being told the Barkeep could not see bottles he owned, and had to paste recipes into the chat because the builder would not take ingredients the catalog did not know.
September 2026
Sep 29, 2026
Save any recipe from a creator pack, and your bar counts it
Every recipe in a creator pack now saves to your list for everyone, Watch button included, starting with the Cosmopolitan pack. A pack recipe you have saved also counts on your Bar tab now: in what you can make tonight, in the ready lists and in the menu picker.
Why: Two members saved a Cosmo and could not find it again. The save lands now, theirs included, and the Bar tab stopped acting as if pack recipes were not there.
Sep 21, 2026
Paste a recipe to the Barkeep and keep it word for word
Paste a recipe from anywhere into Ask the Barkeep and the Save button under the reply now keeps your exact ingredients, amounts and name, even when the house already has a drink by that name. The Barkeep also keeps its working notes to itself, and creating a recipe by hand without picking a glass now saves cleanly.
Why: Members were bringing recipes they found elsewhere into the chat to keep, and the Save button was not always there, or saved a spec the Barkeep had reworked around their shelf.
Sep 17, 2026
Creator packs open like a release, and Discover leads with the packs
A pack made with a creator now opens with the video it came from, the creator's spotlight, and a seat at their bar one tap away. Discover leads with recipe packs, then new originals, then the community; the bars you follow live behind one tap at the top of the page, with what is new at each. The daily Bar Exam row and the pack shelf are on screen the moment the app opens instead of arriving a beat later. On the web now, and in the 4.1.4 app update as it rolls out.
Why: The first creator pack was ready and the pack page had nowhere to put the person behind it or the video it came from. And two rows on the Home and Discover screens used to show up late, which read as a glitch.
Sep 12, 2026
A walk-in tour for your first bottle, and every add says where it went
Open a brand-new bar and a short walk-in tour shows you the loop that matters: pull down for your bar, the three rooms, add a bottle, and which room it landed in. Six stops, about a minute, skip any time, and Replay Tutorial in Settings brings it back for anyone. Every add now tells you where the bottle went, on a photo scan and on search: spirits to the Shelf, wine to the Cellar, syrups, mixers, juice and bitters to the Pantry. The empty bar opens on tap as well as on pull. And the Barkeep's shopping-list button understands near-miss names like angostura-bitters, and never says something is on your list when it is not.
Why: Half of new signups never added a bottle, and the old walkthrough only appeared after the first one. Now the tour meets you at the empty bar and walks you in. The app has always known which room a bottle belongs in; now it says so every time.
Sep 9, 2026
Fast, quick, and fun: invent a drink, say who sees it, see what your bar is worth
Home Bar Hero got fast, quick, and fun. Invent a drink: pick a spirit and a taste, say what you are after, and one tap invents an original from the bottles you own, checked bottle by bottle, with the measurements and a portrait the moment you save it. It costs one AI credit, and a drink that reaches past your shelf costs nothing. Ask the Barkeep and it will do it for you. Say who sees it: on your own recipes, sharing is a row of pills under the badges with a picker that says it plainly, just you, people at your bar, or everyone, and everyone can be taken back. See what your bar is worth: Top Shelf members now get a quiet total on Home and a price line on every bottle, an average of what it sells for, refreshed monthly, and it never leaves your bar. The Flavor Lab is now Invent a drink, one door from the Make menu, the Make page and the Barkeep. Shared drinks are named for the drink, with the credit in the byline.
Why: Inventing a drink is the most fun thing the app does, and it was hiding behind a lab coat. One door, from your own shelf, and the drink is yours to keep. Sharing was buried under three dots and asked its question sideways; now it asks it straight. And a bar is worth something, so Top Shelf members get to see it.
Sep 8, 2026
Daily Pours, the Pantry, and videos on recipes
Home now opens on three Daily Pours you can make tonight, each with the story behind it and the bottles of yours it uses, a finder that turns what is in your bar into a recipe from the book or a brand-new one, and the one bottle that would unlock the most drinks. The Kitchen and Mixers rooms are one Pantry now, with real bottles for your syrups and bitters and every drink each one is used in. Recipe pages are quieter: one button, the story, and the recipe, with everything else under the dots. And creators can attach a how-to video to any recipe, so the classics come with someone making them.
Why: Home should answer one question, what can I pour tonight, before it does anything else. The Kitchen and Mixers were two rooms for one job. Recipe pages had six buttons for one action. And the people who actually make drinks on camera deserved a place on the page people look up.
Sep 4, 2026
The Barkeep knows your shelf
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: The Barkeep knew the recipes but not your bottles, so it answered like a book instead of a friend behind your bar.
Sep 3, 2026
The Cellar: A place for your wine
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.
August 2026
Aug 31, 2026
Bar List View, AI Originals, and Exporting
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.
barcommunityexport
Aug 17, 2026
The Open Bar is open
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.
open barcommunitybarkeep
Aug 17, 2026
Bar, Make, Discover
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.
appmakediscover
Aug 17, 2026
The Barkeep got smarter
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.
barkeepask airecipes
Aug 17, 2026
First bottle first
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.
onboardingbar
Aug 16, 2026
Become a Regular at any bar
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.
Aug 16, 2026
Multiple menus for Party Host
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.
Aug 12, 2026
AI credits reset every day now
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.
creditstop shelf
Aug 10, 2026
Ask AI is free for everyone
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.
Aug 10, 2026
Ready, with a sub
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.
Aug 9, 2026
Arrange your shelf, stack your bottles
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.
shelf
Aug 7, 2026
Pitcher Perfect: drinks by the pitcher
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.
packsrecipes
Aug 5, 2026
Founder Chat
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.
communitytop shelf
July 2026
Jul 27, 2026
The spotlight tour
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.
onboarding
Jul 27, 2026
A bottle catalog that heals itself
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.
scanningshelfpacks
Jul 20, 2026
Kitchen & Mixers
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.
shelfingredients
Jul 8, 2026
Build your own recipe packs
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.
Jul 8, 2026
Flavor Lab
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.
Jul 7, 2026
Recipe Packs arrive
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.
packsrecipes
June 2026
Jun 29, 2026
Top Shelf: the supporter upgrade
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.
top shelf
Jun 19, 2026
3.0: your bar, rendered
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.
shelfshared bars