

Show HN: an app I built to help you find great beer - mroling
http://beerque.st/

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thecoffman
As a dedicated untappd user (500 unique beers, way more checkins), what does
beerquest offer over untappd? It looks beautiful; clearly a very well put
together app, but is there a compelling reason to switch? Either way, great
work!

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mroling
The biggest difference between the two apps is that BeerQuest is just as much
about the place as it is about the beer. We don't rely on third party places
data like Untappd does (Foursquare). Checkins are about checking into a place
and not a beer. If you're at a place and are drinking a beer, you 'drink' a
beer. We also think the journal and maps aspect of the app turned out really
well. Quickly map out all of the great places near you and everywhere you
been.

From a technical perspective, BeerQuest was built using Objective C instead of
HTML5, so it feels like a true native app because it is.

~~~
enjo
Untappd has been native for quite awhile.

<http://blog.untappd.com/post/10844733770/weve-gone-native>

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mroling
It's not native in the strict sense. They ported over their web app using
PhoneGap: <http://phonegap.com/app/untappd/>

Untappd uses webviews to serve up local HTML/CSS/JS. To me, that's not native.

~~~
rohansingh
They stopped doing that. It's fully native now.

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mroling
I don't think so. The showcase on PhoneGap was posted in July 2012.
Additionally, it's easy to tell that the app isn't utilizing the Cocoa Touch
UI framework. Look at how the views bounce, how the buttons "feel". Those are
dead PhoneGap giveaways.

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cwilson
It looks like there is quite a bit of data already for Austin users (which
makes sense for SXSW), but I just tried this in San Francisco and it looks
pretty empty.

Is there an existing data set out there for beer? I know there are a TON of
beer review sites, but I'm guessing none have an API or a way to integrate.

If you want this to take off I'd suggest trying to get a few early power users
in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle to light a fire in the Pacific
Northwest as this is definitely micro-brew country.

~~~
cwilson
I can already think of a few great uses for this. A few weeks ago I had a
friend come into town for San Francisco Beer Week and ALL he cared about was
finding which bars carried Pliny the Younger (it's won "Best beer in the
world" at least once). There was no easy way to do this.

~~~
kk3
Even if you know where Pliny the Younger is being served, there's still no
easy way to do this. They release a limited amount and it usually sells out in
the first hour or so. If you go to the Russian River brewery it's a 5 hour+
wait. Crazy stuff.

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fdomig
I did a similar App for restaurants in another country, however, I did an
Android and iOS version and found that much more people are using my Android
app. The conversion rate seems to be better on Android as well.

So, I'd love to see this App on the Google Play store since I am a huge fan of
great beer and the bars where to find them.

~~~
mroling
Great feedback regarding the conversion rate. We actually went down the road
of building both an iOS and an Android version out of the gate but found that
the Android platform seemed fragmented. With hundreds of different devices all
running everything from 2.x to 4.x, it seemed too complicated initially to do
it right.

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gfodor
Non-app related question, is there a stock service that will slice together
and create the animated screen transitions you have? I am about to put
together a site for an iOS app and I'm guessing that this is common enough
that I can spend a little money and save a lot of time. (any link related to
buying designs/layouts welcome too)

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karl_gluck
Looks great (and I live in Austin, so recognizing some of the places was
cool!) but I only have an Android phone. Would love to know if you make a
version for it.

Is the data for this app user-submitted, or do you pull from somewhere?

~~~
mroling
Currently, all of the data comes from the users.

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prawn
Is there an IMDB of beers for apps like this to use? And wine for that matter?

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kareemm
I've been using <http://beermenus.com> for years to find awesome beers near
me. They've got both web and mobile versions, which is nice.

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ewolfe
Checkout <http://www.drinkowl.com/> if you haven't already.

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alanbyrne
I love this idea and it is exactly the kind of thing I want here in London.

Except I run and Android phone :(

~~~
julianz
Untappd is lovely on Android, sounds like it's some way ahead of this app. I
use it in New Zealand and it works great. Nothing else mentioned in this
thread is close.

