As far as I am concerned, there are two major online databases for tracking, tasting, and documenting craft beer. I use Ratebeer.com.
It has a simple interface, I can make as little or as much tasting notes as I want for everything I try and I can even simply “tick” the beers I sample if I am merely counting or looking only for ones I haven’t had before. I’m coming up on my 10 year anniversary as a member of Ratebeer and have logged nearly 2,000 different craft beers along the way. Some, were full pints, some were samplers but each one a little adventure in it’s own right.
Until recently there has not been an official mobile app for Ratebeer. Although there has been “BeerBuddy” for a while, I don’t think it is an officially sanctioned Ratebeer app. Though the notes and ratings can sync between the mobile app and the RB site. There has been a .99$ version of the app for a long time and about a year ago a free version was released, that gave you 3 free bar-code scans. (Ponying up the dollar for the paid version gave you unlimited scans). A recent Facebook post from Ratebeer’s fearless leader Joe Tucker, suggested that there will be a new Ratebeer app released soon. I threw my hat in the ring for an early review but haven’t gotten a response yet. Possibly those privileges are reserved for media outlets that have readers/subscribers that number in the double digits at least.
As an iPhone user I will be watching and hoping for this soon and will post my experiences and observations here when I finally get my hands on it.
