Tables of recipes as well as other records such as hop schedules and malt bills can be represented using BeerXML for use by brewing software.

BeerXML is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

[9][10] Plugins and extensions supporting BeerXML have been written for a variety of platforms including Ruby via RubyGems,[11] WordPress,[12] PHP[13] and JavaScript[14] Many brewing hardware manufacturers incorporate BeerXML into their systems[15][16][17] and third party plugins and patches are being developed for brewery control hardware and embedded systems[18] allowing the automation and fine control and timing of processes such as mashing[19] and potentially fermentation.

Brewers can use platforms like Brewblogger.com to create recipes and log their brewday for publication as a blog and for export to databases[29][30] and common spreadsheet applications.

The following fields form the core information of the BeerXML structure Recipe Specific - When added (Boil, Mash, First Wort, Dry, etc.)

[33] While this is not a real world limitation for many brewers, it does introduce a discrepancy where a software tool or web service that allows several or unlimited fermentation steps wishes to implement BeerXML as an import/export mechanism.

No distinction is made between weight and mass[34] The BeerXML standard has a proposed second version which has been mooted and is under development.