It’s great that I can see what “my local” is offering even when I’m still 25 miles away trying to get out of the office. One of the new features I really like is it’s easy to find out what my friends thought of a particular beer, in addition to the whole untappd world. Fast forward several years and I love it! It’s great to discover that have or have not imbibed particular one and what I thought of it in the past and compare that to what I think of it now. I don’t think anyone would ever classify me as a “beer geek” and I can’t exactly handle more than a couple beers in a given day (albeit the latest “session” beer offerings are delicious and confess I do take advantage of that!) It was on my phone for a good 6 months before I started “checking in” my drinks. In the beginning, it took me a while to get into this app.

What’s done is done but now the ballots are skewed towards the often questionable motives of the professional or quasi-pro social media personalities. Completely understand that revenue has to be prioritized…but compromising the statistical integrity of your greatest value proposition - statistically relevant beer ratings- was an unwise source to tap. I’ll also add that the fairly recent pay to play “premium” access to provide ratings at more granular increments is a misstep.

I will note that the platform does not facilitate true whale hunting - as everything you can source has to appear on a registered venue’s most updated menu…and so there’s very limited c2c exchange opportunity. Being able to share the experiences of fellow craft beer fans adds another dimension to this value, and whimsical flare like badges and events adds fun ambience. Solid fit for my objective of identifying new items to try and logging assessments of what I’ve sampled- so basically continual refinement of my personal beer preferences & ambitions. Intuitive & relatively engaging…and if you can’t find solid beers that fit your style here you’re doing something wrong. Good platform for sourcing & socializing.

Beer untappd