← Whiskey Thief

User Guide

Whiskey Thief is a personal whiskey tasting journal for collectors. It keeps your bottles, tasting notes, photos, pours, and collection value private and on your device, and adds AI-powered expert tools when you want a second opinion. Features marked (Pro) require a Whiskey Thief Pro subscription.

Getting started

A short welcome tour introduces the app on first launch — replay it anytime from Settings → Help & Tour. A bar across the bottom switches between the four main areas:

• Collection — your shelf, samples, and wishlist
• Pour — the “Tonight’s Pour” recommender
• Notes — your tasting journal
• Vault — collection value, stats, badges, and tools

The + button adds a bottle; the gear icon opens Settings. The core journal is free; the AI tools are Pro.

Building your collection

Tap + and choose how to add a bottle:

• Scan a barcode — Whiskey Thief looks it up and pre-fills the details.
• Identify from photo (Pro after the first free scan) — AI identifies the bottle from a photo of its label.
• Add by hand — type the details yourself.

The + menu can also run Shelf Check (Pro) (“Check against my shelf”) on a bottle you haven’t bought yet — and after any barcode scan you can choose to add the bottle or check it first.

Bottles are organized across three tabs: My Shelf (full bottles), Samples (samples and minis, with a Tasted/Untasted state), and Wishlist (bottles you want but don’t own yet). Switch between a flat list and region groups, search by name, distillery, or serial, and sort or filter.

Bottle details

Tap a bottle to open its full record:

• Photos — add several, swipe the gallery, set a primary image.
• Ratings & tasting notes — rate it and tag flavors on the flavor wheel.
• Pours & fill level — log each pour; fill level and pours-remaining update.
• Value tracking — record what you paid and track estimated value over time.
• Serial, storage location, and tags.
• Share a bottle card — generate a shareable card image.

Inventory & units

Vault → Inventory is the per-unit ledger of everything you own.

• Ledger or Grouped — a flat list of every physical unit, or bottles grouped together.
• Status — each unit is Sealed, Open, or Finished; samples show Tasted or Untasted. A colored bar shows the region.
• Each unit can carry its own price and storage location.
• Tap the ⋮ menu (or long-press a row) to mark open/finished, add another unit, edit price, set a location, manage tags, or delete.
• Sort and filter to find a specific unit.

Tonight’s Pour

The Pour tab helps you decide what to drink:

• Flavor wheel — tell it what you’re craving and it narrows your shelf to matching bottles.
• Surprise pour — let the app pick for you: the wheel spins with a roulette sound, then reveals the pick.

It only considers bottles you actually own.

Notes & journal

The Notes tab is your tasting journal:

• Write dated journal entries.
• Browse them by date on the month calendar.
• Dictate an entry by voice instead of typing.

The Vault

The Vault is your collection’s dashboard:

• At a glance — pours remaining, collection value, bottle and distillery counts, average rating, longest-held bottle, and sample counts.
• Stats — a deeper statistics screen.
• Badges — achievements you unlock as your collection grows.
• The Rare Shelf — a curated atlas of notable bottles, annual releases, and closed distilleries.
• Distillery map — where your bottles’ distilleries are in the world.
• Inventory — the per-unit ledger.
• Tools — Shelf Check, bottle comparison, cigar pairing, and palate analysis (all Pro).

Expert tools

AI tools for a second opinion (most are Pro):

• Identify from photo (Pro after the first free scan) — identify a bottle from a photo of its label.
• Tasting-note assist (Pro) — a starting set of notes to refine.
• Palate analysis (Pro) — describes your palate from your ratings and notes.
• Bottle comparison (Pro) — compare two bottles side by side.
• Cigar pairing (Pro) — suggest a cigar for a whiskey.
• Market-value estimates (Pro) — a rough estimated value.
• Shelf Check (Pro) — a Buy / Try First / Pass verdict on a store bottle (details below).

AI results are for information and entertainment and may be inaccurate. Estimated values are rough guides, not appraisals or financial advice.

Shelf Check (Pro)

Standing in a store, wondering if a bottle deserves a spot on your shelf? Shelf Check scans it and answers Buy, Try First, or Pass — grounded in your own collection, not a stranger’s reviews:

• Palate match — how close the bottle’s typical flavor profile is to bottles you’ve rated, with your closest matches shown alongside your own star ratings.
• Overlap — flags when you already own several bottles very like it.
• Price check — enter the shelf price and it’s weighed against what you paid for similar bottles.

Identify the bottle by barcode, label photo, or by typing it in; from the verdict you can add it straight to your wishlist or collection. Find Shelf Check in Vault → Tools, under the + button (“Check against my shelf”), at the top of your Wishlist, or right after scanning a barcode. It needs an internet connection, and until you’ve rated a few bottles it leans on Try First while it learns your palate.

Your data

Your collection stays yours:

• On your device — bottles, notes, ratings, prices, fill levels, value history, and photos are stored locally. There’s no account, and your collection isn’t uploaded to our servers.
• Backup & restore — export a complete .zip backup (photos included) and import it on a new device, from Settings → Backup & Restore.
• iCloud (iOS) — optionally back up to and restore from iCloud.
• CSV — export your collection as a spreadsheet, or import bottles from a CSV. (Use a full backup to move everything, including photos.)
• Clear all data — permanently wipe everything for a fresh start.

See the Privacy Policy for exactly what each feature sends.

Whiskey Thief Pro

Pro unlocks the AI expert tools. It’s an auto-renewable subscription with a free trial; monthly and annual plans are available, and the price is shown before you buy.

Free: building your shelf, tasting notes and sheets, ratings, pour logging, value tracking, the Pour recommender, the full Vault dashboard, the Distillery map, and backups.

Pro: Identify from photo (after your first free scan), Shelf Check, market-value estimates, the tasting-note assist, palate analysis, bottle comparisons, and cigar pairings.

Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel in your Apple ID settings (iPhone) or the Google Play Store app under Subscriptions (Android); deleting the app does not cancel it. Use Restore Purchases to re-grant Pro on a new device.

Settings & help

• Help & Tour — replay the welcome tour.
• Sound effects — toggle the roulette, scan, and Shelf Check sound cues (on by default). Sounds always respect your phone’s ring/silent switch, and haptic feedback stays on even with sounds off.
• Community catalog (optional, off by default) — shares only factual bottle info (name, distillery, region, ABV, barcode) to improve lookups for everyone; your notes, ratings, photos, and prices are never shared.
• Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
• Open Source — licenses and attributions, also summarized below.

Open source licenses

Whiskey Thief uses open source libraries for the app framework, local data, barcode/photo capture, exports, subscriptions, sharing, and bundled typography. The in-app Settings → Open Source screen contains the complete generated notice text; the website keeps a more readable summary at Open Source Licenses.

Questions? Email support@castshadow.com.

Whiskey Thief Journal · Journal · Open Source · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Support · Community