Untappd: A Tool For Beer Lovers & Homebrewers
Untappd is a social beer app designed to connect consumers of beer, cider, and other fermented beverages. It has a swath of great features for both fun and for finding out what to drink. Homebrewers can even get some use out of the rating system.
The rating system on Untappd is the first thing that everyone notices. Any beverages can be rated anywhere from not rated up to a 5. The rating system provides a reference for both what to try as well as tracking your own ratings. Remember to take the ratings with a grain of salt as some beers are overrated and many others underrated.
Each beer has its own profile that includes everything from style to flavors up to a skeleton recipe. You can get a more detailed description of the beer’s style by clicking on it. Most beers at the very least will have their style and a description. My favorite feature of the profile is the similar beer option that gives you something similar to try. The profile will also include your check in stats so no more buying a bad beer twice by accident.
Of course we cannot forget about the badges and other social features.
The badges are merely a fun feature but give you something to compete with friends. The badges vary from everything from styles to serving vessel up to even special venue or holiday related ones. I like the feature but the completionist inside me gets annoyed by badges I forget or can’t earn “fairly”.
The best of the social features comes by adding local friends. Each beer will display your friend’s rating for anything they’ve tried. It’s much easier to trust a friend’s opinion over random people. You can even digitally toast your buddy’s check in. You do have the option to automatically share your check-ins on Twitter and Facebook but I’d suggest limiting it if you drink a lot of beer like me.
There are quite a few ways to locate a beer on Untappd. The first one is you can see where your friends purchased their beer. Secondly local bars and breweries are generally good at keeping a current tap list available on Untappd. You can even keep a beer on your watch list incase it goes on tap nearby.
Last but not least Untappd offers some great things for homebrewers. You can submit your own beers including the same detailed stats that the commercial brews have. This will help you track your own beers but can also be used at local events for people to give feedback on your beer. You can actually track a keg’s fullness indirectly if you can get everyone to check-in when they poured something from your taps. Finally homebrewers actually get their own set of badges.
