Beer Apps for Techno Geeks

Image courtesy of Active Beer Geek

Fast forward to present day, me with my iPhone4 and over 200 apps on my device. I do have photos and music and even keep a calendar, but I have totally app-ed out! I spend more time shopping the apps than I do talking on the darned thing. Heck, I even have a BEER folder for all of the beer-related apps I have.

Despite all of my apps, I am by no means the Queen of Apps. I generally do not buy any of the apps I use. I am not sure why I can easily drop dollars at the mall, but God forbid I part with a few cents for a beer app! Also, I hate, and I mean HATE, apps that want me to enter all of my personal information and link their site to my Facebook or my Twitter or my what-the-heck-ever account. I just want to find a brewery in a new city, not open my entire personal life to your community! I get a bit touchy when I have to invent new, or use old, user names and passwords and then invent yet another secret question. Gee, was that a capital letter or a lower case letter? Was that one word or two? My time is too important, and my privacy too guarded, to invite every beer drinking Bertha into my little corner of the world when all I want is some information. I also refuse to be a part of drinking game apps. My professional self and my personal self collide here and I know that drinking games do nothing more than promote the over consumption of alcohol and promote a culture of excess. In my humble opinion.

My perspective is also limited by the fact that I shoot for free apps and I only have the iphone. I have not ever owned and know very little about the Droid, iPad, or any of the other platforms that are out there for app Geeks like me. If you are one of those folks, please add your input in the comments section of this article so that others can benefit from your experiences. You know, inclusivity and all.

Right now, today, and subject to change at any moment or the next time the bus gets stuck in traffic, my phone contains the following beer apps that are listed below. I will try and save you some time and money by describing each one and give you what I hope will be useful feedback. I am not technologically talented enough to include logos, either. Again, this is where you as a member of the LOCB community are invaluable and your feedback needed!

Brewery Map – Input a location and it is supposed to show you breweries. Tends not to be comprehensive and will only find the well established and large places. Not bad if you are in a new town or live in a large city.
Beer Match – Puts beer, food and cheeses together for pairings. You can choose the beer, the foods or the cheese and the app will give you suggestions. Pretty fun, but there are times that I could care less what goes with what, as long as the beer is good!
Beer – Keeps track of your tasting with notes and ratings. You can include a photo of the beer. I logged into mine and realized I had never put anything in this one. I will have to get on that.
BAC Calc – One of the better ways to gauge your blood alcohol levels if you are monitoring or need to know if you can or should drive. Never 100% accurate, but a nice reference.
Beer Cloud – Lots of information in there, but it is a bit much for this simple gal. You can input your beers, find what is near, and there are pairing suggestions. Caution – this one will want a profile and such, which you do not have to provide. I found it slow and confusing. Delete.
Beer Brands – A means by which you can keep track of your favorites or of beers you have tried. You can rate them yourself. You can also look up brands and get a detailed description, pairings, and a bit of history. Caution – the app does want you to connect all your social networking, but it is not required. Simple and easy to use (like me ;0).
iLoveBeer – Well, it looked good at first. When I looked further, the offerings included Keystone, Miller Light and Bud. DELETE!!!!
Taplister – Provides information on local pubs and beer places. Great way to see details of the establishment as with hours web site and location, but dependent on the management or app users putting information into the site. If information is there about the beer, it can be useful if you are looking for new taps in your area or if you are out of town.
Tap Hunter – hmm, not sure about this one. Again, a program to help find beer and or breweries. However, most of the listings I received were about 300 miles away. You can search by beer or by brewery. May be more useful if I lived in a big city.
A Monitor – another way to calculate or monitor your blood alcohol level. This one is for the visual among us, as it is mostly in pictures. I would shy away from making big life decisions based on the information, but a guide just the same.

Those are what I have and how I found them to be or not to be useful. I am looking forward to feedback from readers and more information on what is out there.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the ipad and the wonders that wait for me there… with one of those in my hands, you may never see me again!

Cheers!

[Editor's Note: Although Untappd isn't mentioned on this particular list, we here at Ladies of Craft Beer are big fans, as shown by our East/West Coast Brew Crawl Badges with them. Untappd is a check-in service where you can keep track of and review in 140 characters any beer that you drink while earning badges along the way!]