I recently got the new HTC Hero phone that runs Google's Android OS. Its similar in looks and functionality as the iPhone, but the OS is open-source. As soon as I become familiar with the phone, I began searching the Internets for cool beer related apps to download onto it. Here are the ones that I've found:BeerCloud Mobile App - BeerCloud is a revolutionary mobile app that helps you pair beer with food, track down your favorite beers in your neighborhood, and pull up a full description of any beer with a scan of its barcode. Released by GreatBrewers.com, a website developed and run by a group of national beer wholesalers. The website actually has a great deal of beer information on it, but only about the various beers that the members of the website distribute. Since only one wholesaler per region is able to be a member, you won't find any information about a beer if they don't distribute it. However, being able to search for a beer by scanning the barcode on the label using your phone is pretty cool. $Free
Beer Hero - This geographically aware application will help you find great bottled craft-brewed beer and BewPubs. It also has a Beer/Meal pairing feature that will point to locally available beers. It didn't really find much beer in my area. It also seems to refer to all "beer bars" as "brewpubs" but didn't list the one and only brewpub that we do have in Houston. Developed by Lifestyle Software. $2.99
Beer Counter - Beer counter is an application that can keep track of your beer consumption. This application comes in handy in locations where the bill is paid for at the end and no individual tracking is done for a group of people having a couple of beers together. Not sure how useful this would be unless you're drinking with a bug of cheap friends. $Free
BJCP Droid - Application for easy viewing of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) beer/mead style guidelines. Developed by Transmutable Explorations. This is actually pretty handy to look up the characteristics of different styles. $Free
Beer Journal - Record and edit breweries. Take notes for each brew you try. Might be handy to record info about beer while you're out and about drinking. Lite version $Free; Full version $0.99
I also heard that the Beer Mapping Project website is working on an Android app that would be geographically aware. I'm looking forward to that one as I use their site quite often.
Let me know if you have any other Beer apps to recommend (or any great non-beer Android apps as well).
7 comments:
Thank you for mentioning Beer Hero in your article. In response to this article the Beer Hero team has added Two Rows brewpub in Houston. With so many brewpubs across the US we certainly didn't catch them all...but we're working diligently to continually add to our database. Please drop us a note if you ever come across a brewpub or microbrewery that we've missed and we'll gladly add it so that all of our users can benefit.
Thanks,
The Beer Hero Team
No doubt its difficult to keep the database updated. I just found the update page on your site for adding new breweries and beer bars. If I notice any other ones missing, I'll be sure to submit them.
Im looking for an android app that let's you scan a beer and then search beeradvocate for ratings. It would be very useful when trying to decide what to get at a liquor store
That would be handy. Check with the BeerAdvocate website and see if they're working on anything. I know the RateBeer website has an android app that's available in the marketplace, but it seems to crash a lot on my phone.
Thanks for the info! I will have to use some of these for sure. I'm new to Droid, so it's good to have apps suggested instead of wasting time finding out how bad some are!
I also own a beer blog. I'm in Michigan and I focus on local craft breweries and home brewing.
www.spartanbrewhouse.com
Mitch - Check the "Android Beer Apps" link at the top of the page. Its tough to keep the list updated as new apps come out, so let me know if you find any not on the list that are worth adding.
Excellent overview Steve. Just picked up a new Android phone, and can't wait to try BeerCloud out around my neighborhood.
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