( @drinkingmadeeasy, @beerby )
My reign of terror over at Drinking Made Easy continues. This time I discuss social drinking apps for your smart phones and hint at my disdain for hipsters!
Read More: Drink Socially…Alone?
Update: DME’s links are dead, here is the full article…
A few years ago, I met my friends at the local pub for a beer or two almost every night. That was then. Between work, kids, and household projects (those damn shelves won’t hang themselves), I don’t see my friends as much as I used to. Just because my friends are not around, I haven’t stopped drinking. In fact, since I have been left to fend for myself, I have found some excellent beers by chance.
My less adventurous friends and colleagues often ask me what beer I am stocking my fridge with. The first few times made for an enjoyable conversation, but after a while this small talk became tedious and repetitive; enter social media! Leveraging Generation Y’s inability to look up from their smart phones to hold a conversation, everyone can now share what beer they are enjoying at any given moment via a few difference social apps.
Social drinking apps like Beerby (http://www.beerby.com) and Untappd (http://untappd.com/) allow you to tell your friends what beverage is in your hand (the hand that doesn’t have the phone in it) as you are enjoying it. Beerby integrates with an existing Foursquare account allowing drinkers to log and comment on the beverages they are enjoying. The program has over 30,000 beers in its database and growing. Untappd seems to be the newcomer in social drinking apps, but it offers a nice interface and community. Beerby seems more focused on you and what you are drinking, while Untappd has more of a social focus (what your friends are drinking).
At the moment, I prefer Beerby over Untappd. I had some issues getting Untappd’s location based services to work properly (could have been my phone), which gives me the impression that Beerby is a little more polished. Another smart feature from Beerby is that system allows a user to simply rate the beer in addition to making comments. Both apps feature rewards/badges for tracking certain kinds and different numbers of beers, which is great because it encourages consumers to try out new beers.
Untappd and Beerby have an excellent feature that allows you to determine what bars near you stock/serve your favorite brews. I assumed this would be great news for all the emerging micro-breweries, but Beerby’s top beers are:
1. Yuengling Traditional Lager
2. Pabst Blue Ribbon
3. Miller Lite
4. Coors Light
5. Bud Light
This leads me to the drawbacks of social media: who gives a damn if you are drinking a Miller Lite or PBR? They are perfectly fine beverages, but they are nothing to tell the world about. Broadcasting that you are drinking Bud Light is the social media equivalent of tweeting that you are going to the bathroom. I want to know about all the other beers that I never heard of. I want to know who is drinking Rogue’s Chocolate Stout or who serves Duvel in my neighborhood. Isn’t that what social media is all about… letting people know about something that was criminally overlooked?
Any Drinking Made Easy readers up for the challenge of knocking the big three (Miller/Bud/Coors) out of Beerby’s top 5? Feel free to comment below on your favorite beers, and any other social drinking applications you are using.
