“Beer Brands” App Review

Overview

Beer Brands is a information database of 7,800 beers to help you learn more about a specific beer, track your favorites, pick a beer by style, or select a beer at random.  The beers are displayed in an alphabetized list and you can search by name.  The app also allows you to send the beer information to your friends via email, post on Facebook, or tweet for all to see.

Basic information included in the app:

• Brewery
• Brewery Type
• Container
• Glass
• Serving Temperature
• Fermentation
• Pasteurized
• Alcohol by Weight (ABW)
• Alcohol by Volume (ABV)
• Year
• Foods best served with

The Positives

The app is easy to use and has a professional design.  It is free to download and supported with a small advertisement on the screen that is not intrusive or disrupting.  A feature I have not often seen is the ability to email, Facebook, or tweet the beer information.  This feature is commonly found on websites but I have not come across it very often when trying new beer apps.  I also liked that the ABV was included, allowing the drinker to make an education decision about the alcohol’s potential impacts.

What the Creators Could do Better

Searching by brewery is a must.  Since this information is already included in the app this should be a coding issue and fairly easy to fix.  There also is a lot of missing information about the beers.  Filling this information in as much as possible, would be a plus.  Another important piece of information missing is the location of the brewery.  I know a lot of beer is brewed in multiple locations – of which might be far away from the original home brewery – but many of the small breweries that are not associated with the giants of the beer world are not.  There is a movement towards drinking local and it would be great to see this app embrace it.

Departing Thoughts

There are a lot of beer information / suggestion apps out there.  What Beer Brands has going for it is the easy to use interface.  With more complete information and consistent updating to accommodate for new beers, this app could be a winner.

Technical Stuff

Beer Brands app was downloaded on October 29, 2011 and tested on an iPhone 4 on the Verizon network.

There also is an Android version.

Try it out by downloading it now:

iPhone

Android

 

Tags: Android App, App Review, iPhone App