Occasionally it's the really simple ideas that work the best when it comes to iPhone applications. This particular one will probably end up on every beer interested iPhone owning Swede on planet earth. (And us non-Swedes that live in Sweden.)

What does it do? It tells you which new beers (Nya öl means just that) are available at the state run alcohol monopoly store Systembolaget. That's it. No wines, no whiskeys...just the beers, their prices and an in-App link to the item's listing on the Systembolaget website.

Each month or so anywhere between 3 and 30 new beers become available in Sweden. Many of them only for a matter of days or weeks. Because they are limited, and not added to the "permanent" selection, it's good to know what is available and where. Thanks to Memention for making things slightly better in a country where being a consumer of (good) beer can be somewhat problematic.

 

Nya Öl is free and can be downloaded from the iTunes store here.

Labels: iPhone, Beer Related iPod Apps

If you have an iPhone and are interested in beer then you have more than likely gone searching through the App Store for a relevant beer review application. Unfortunately they are far and few between.

Most of the crap applications out there center around a predetermined list of between 100-3000 different beers and a paltry description of their goods and bads. A few allow you to freely create your own reviews but none really stick out as a forerunner in form, functionality and quality. In fact, of all the ones out there Beer Pad is the only one that even appears to have an idea of what a beer review application should be. (Please tell me if I'm wrong here...)

At $3.99 Beer Pad advertises itself as "the iPhone app for the fine beer aficionado". It allows you to record your thoughts, rate beers, take a picture, browse your entries as well as e-mail your notes and search your entries. The company who created Beer Pad also created the app "Tasting Notes" which, in addition to beer, handles such snobbery as cigars, whisky and wine.

For a while I've been tempted to download this application simply because I figure that my iPhone could be put to some good use down at the pub. I do most, if not all, beer reviews on this site at home simply because it's the best place to get a photo and record my thoughts. However, the limited number of beers available for purchase here in Sweden at the store compared to the pubs makes it obvious that this is not the best way of doing things. So...today I bought Beer Pad and figured I'd give it a spin to see if it will make things easier than the old pen and paper method.

Expectations: What I have been looking for is an app that will be simple to use and quick. I don't want to spend 20 minutes typing things into my phone at the bar. I want to be able to get a picture and record some brief thoughts and then transcribe things in a more in-depth way when I get home. It should have all the basic beer traits pre-loaded or at least have a quick and easy way of adding them.

Look: Beer Pad has a simple list appearance, which is good. It doesn't need a lot of rigamarole but it does need to be concise. Nobody wants to scroll through tons and tons of options to get to the content.

The background is, I am guessing, supposed to be parchment. It actually seems to revert to white rather often, but returns when you restart the application. There are only a few different sections, which is good, and everything seems rather straight forward...or, so I thought.

First Use: The first thing I realized after starting Beer Pad was that I didn't know how to add a beer. There is no "Add" button, or any "plus" symbol. Clicking "Info" did nothing but lead me to a bunch of external internet links to blogs etc. Apparently, what you need to do - and this isn't obvious - is to click on "Edit" first and then you'll find the "plus" button and the option to delete earlier posts. This is basically based on the "Notes" application so I don't know why they chose a more confusing route for adding a new review. Anywho, I figured it out after a minute or so and could get down to business.

Adding a Beer: Adding new reviews is done via a simple form that has about 20 different variables. This includes the standards: name, ABV, style, brewery, country (this is called "region"), aroma, mouthfeel and flavor. In addition it includes (and seemingly highlights) some oddities such as pairings, price, odor, bouquet and finish. These are all fine, but they should be done the same way the Address Book works, add those that you want and don't display the rest all the time. In fact, you never actually see your review as simply that, you always come to the entire form regardless if you have left fields blank.

Some of the fields come pre-loaded with options such as style, region and even brewery. This is very helpful and speeds up the process. Unfortunately you are limited to just one choice when selecting from the lists. In other words you can't have a beer that is a "triple" and a "Trappist". The choice of using region is also kind of strange since you can't have a state and a country, but rather have to enter that as a whole new option such as "California, United States". City doesn't even exist.

The majority of the fields are simply a blank entry area where you type what you want. This is logical for some choices, but for things like color and taste it would have been better to use a similar list of choices like the others. That way, even if you add a new option, you could reuse it in the future. In the end it takes a solid ten minutes to enter all the fields if you are actually trying to be thorough.

The photo option works well, and is a major bonus. Heck, why else is there a 3 megapixel camera on the iPhone? You can also choose a picture from your library if you ever want to add a better quality image.

Additional Things:

Browsing - You can see your beers sorted by Style, Brewery, Region and Pairings.

E-mail - You can send an e-mail with your review in a simple text format including the image.

Ratings - You can rate between 0 and 5 stars. This is displayed in the main listing along with the name and "details".

Overall:

Petty Issues - Small irritations.

- The ABV is shown simply as a number, so if you enter 8.0 it is displayed as 8. No % symbol etc.

- The "price" is the second field shown, most people will not find this to be of such importance (if any).

- The review should be shown as a whole, with an edit option. Unfilled fields should not be displayed and the information could easily be condensed.

- The main display includes a "details" section, thereby keeping the name of the beer very small. Brewery would have been a better option if more info needed to be displayed.

- You can't actually sort by ratings. But, you can sort by "pairings"?

To Conclude - I still haven't seen any real competitors for Beer Pad, which may be why myself and some others have been discussing creating our own. Beer Pad is obviously a start, and features the standard things needed to function, but it doesn't really follow through. One could just as well take a picture and use the "Notes" application or record your thoughts with the "Voice Recorder". Listed as version 2.1.0 it seems further development has been abandoned (otherwise a lot of bugs would have been fixed).

In the end, not worth the money for any number of reasons.

Labels: Beer Related iPod Apps, iPhone

  

There isn't much in this world that you can get for under a buck and what you can get is usually pretty weak. That isn't the case with Jennifer Young's "Get Hoppy" iPhone application. This nifty little application will make every homebrewer's life easier. Hell, this is good reading even if you don't homebrew. Get to know your hops!

Jennifer Young's "Get Hoppy"

No more getting to you local homebrew shop with your recipe in hand only to be stumped when you look in the hop fridge and your hops of choice are not there.  We have all been there, don't worry, that is why we designed this app.  With currently 54 different hop variety's, yeah that's right 54!  Can you even think of 54, let alone know the aroma characteristics of all of them?  How about which ones can be substituted for the other?  Well now you can with this app for the iPhone.  In this app we cover the following details.

* Aroma

* Alpha Acids

* Beta Acids

* Co-Humulone

* Storage ability

* Typical Beer Styles

* Substitutions

iTunes - Get Hoppy

Cost - .99 cents

Web - Jennifer Young

Labels: Beer Related iPod Apps

This FREE application from Pyramid allows you to use a virtual beer bottle as a musical instrument. I can imagine a lot of work went into this application and its sure to be some fun in the pub/bar/subway/waiting room etc...

Pyramid Brewing Introduces "Bottleblow"

SEATTLE – November 2, 2009 – Pyramid Breweries announces today its first foray into virtual beers, bringing their award-winning lineup of year-round and seasonal ales to the Apple® iPhone. The free mobile application, developed by Gripwire, Inc., allows users to pop the cap of their favorite Pyramid brew, blow across the lip of the bottle using the iPhone microphone, and share the artistry of their creations through melodious sounds simulating an actual beer-in-bottle noise.

BottleBlow presents users with a naturally easy interface, allowing quick navigation between screens. The app’s main gallery features a world of extraordinary tastes to be explored with Pyramid’s full-flavored line up of year-round beers including Haywire® Hefeweizen, Audacious™ Apricot Ale, and ThunderHead® IPA. Fans can also chose from Pyramid’s seasonal line up of Curve Ball® Blonde Ale (summer), Juggernaut™ Red Ale (fall), and Snow Cap® Winter Warmer (winter). Users also have the ability to change the pitch and tone of their sounds simply by touching the bottle to imitate the liquid level changing in the bottle.

The iPhone app also enables excited BottleBlow musicians the opportunity to connect with their friends. Whether emailing better-beer drinkers from the information page to share details about Pyramid offerings, using BottleBlow as a conversation starter, or creating a multi-bottle tune, Pyramid’s mobile application is an interactive, unique, and beer-centric hit!

iTunes - Pyramid Brewing's Bottleblow

Cost - FREE

Web - Pyramid Brewing Company

Labels: Beer Related iPod Apps