Beer Edition: Untappd connects aficionados, newbies alike with brews

Steven Mullett used to keep drink lists from bars and scratch off which brews he had tried — but now, there’s an app for that.

Untappd, a free smartphone application currently available on iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices, allows users to explore and share different beers with their social circles. Users can mark off which beers they have tried, rate them and receive recommendations based on their taste. More than 1 million people have downloaded the app.

Mullett, a senior lab manager for Bill Yates’ lab in Pitt’s Department of Cell Biology, is an avid homebrewer and has been using the app for almost a year. He said he uses the app to keep track of his beer legacy.

“It’s really easy to use, and it’s really easy to find beers. If it’s not, if it’s a microbrew, it’s very easy to add it to the database and then review it immediately afterwards,” he said.

According to Mullett, the app is especially useful for casual or intermediate drinkers. Despite his experience with microbrewing, he said the app is valuable for him, too.

Greg Avola and Tim Mather launched Untappd in October 2010. The pair has been working together remotely on the project from opposite coasts while maintaining full-time jobs.

Avola, who works for ABC News’ Technology Team, said the idea behind the app stemmed from adding context to the concept of Foursquare, an app that allows users to check in at different locations to let their friends know where they are.

Avola and Mather wanted to focus on a social industry, and the first thing that came to mind was beer. With Untappd, users can not only check in at different bars and breweries, but also keep track of what they drank there.

“Beer is one of the first things we thought of because there really is no Twitter or Facebook for beer,” Avola said.

Vincent Agresti, a senior information science major, has been using the app since 2011.

His reasoning for using the app echoed Avola and Mather’s reason for creating it — he can’t use Foursquare, Facebook or Twitter to find out about beer.

“It’s something that focuses on beer enthusiasts, which is something that other social networks don’t really do,” Agresti said.

According to Agresti, he uses the beer rating and recommendation features of the app most frequently.

“Untappd is a good way for me to track what beers I’ve drank, and it’s also a really good tool for me to find out new beers I might like,” he said.

Avola said the two-man team began building a prototype in July 2010 that only allowed users to search for a beer and add a location, but the app has evolved and added new features since then.

For instance, users can now earn badges for completing different tasks. If a user logs three light beers, they are rewarded with a “Lite Weight” badge.

The app operates with Wikipedia-style editing. Any user can add a beer, but a group of moderators and breweries go through and check the listings for accuracy.

According to Avola, breweries and venues can also create accounts to connect with customers, view analytics on how their brewery is perceived and upload labels to accompany their beers.

“The crux of what we’re trying to do is to connect consumers with beer,” he said.

Breweries and venues can also sponsor badges, run specials on the app or advertise events such as beer festivals.

Avola said the duo hopes to improve the locality of recommendations in the future, because beers are distributed in different parts of the country.

“We’re really focused on honing our data to get local recommendations. We think people will definitely flock to that new feature,” he said.

According to Matt McMahon, founder of Eleventh Hour Brewing, an upcoming Pittsburgh brewery still in its start-up phase, said in an email that he uses Untappd to gather feedback about his company’s beers.

McMahon said Untappd allows him to receive responses on Eleventh Hour’s beers, and he has the ability to view users’ profiles to see how seriously their ratings should be considered.

“I look at other beers they have checked in to identify what styles they like. If that person is an IPA fan and they don’t like our IPA then maybe there is something I need to look at,” he said. “On the other hand, if that person consistently checks in other IPAs that I consider to be great beers, and gives them one to two stars, then that person probably just doesn’t like the IPA style and their feedback illustrates that.”

McMahon said the app is also a useful tool in gauging his performance.

“I feel like Untappd is a great resource for brewers, old and new, to get feedback on their beers,” he said. “While you will always have outliers on the high and low end of the scale, the general consensus is what you want to take away from that data.”

Avola said that there are thousands of beers that consumers might not know about.

“Our goal is to help educate the community about what beer is out there,” he said.

Microbrews have been trending over the last five years, Mullet said, and craft and sour beers are becoming more popular.

“People are starting to open their eyes to the fact that you can make beer taste like anything you want,” he said.

Avola said people want more independence in what they’re drinking.

“They want something different, something more unique and fresh,” he said.