The thirst for ale knowledge

Pete Brown: Supporting use of social networking and Smartphone apps for beer industry

If there’s one drawback to the current explosion in the number of breweries creating a seemingly endless variety of interesting cask ales (I know — my wife is always telling me I’m a ‘glass half empty’ kind of guy) then it’s the snowblindness of knowing what beers are on where, and the lottery of trying pubs to see if your favourite beers are on tap.

But help is at hand. While there are many people citing the internet and the rise of social networking, smartphones and iPhone apps as one of the many threats facing the pub, smart drinkers and people within the beer and pub industry are creating ways to pool information and find out at a glance what’s on the taps.

Of course, there have always been pub review sites, such as fancyapint.com and beerintheevening.com, and these are very good — crowd-sourced, written by drinkers, and usually accurate and fair, apart from when the odd vindictive lunatic posts a libellous review because of some grudge.

But these are static reviews, updated only when a reader wishes to leave a comment. Smartphones have introduced us to the mobile internet, getting information on the move, and this has led people to demand more immediate, up-to-the-minute information about the stuff they’re into.

Cask Marque was quick to see the potential and in 2010 launched CaskFinder, an iPhone app that knows your location and says what Cask Marque-accredited pubs are nearby. It links from there to the pub’s website, and has an indication of what beers are on the bar. Where these beers are Cyclops accredited, it also links to Cyclops tasting notes and the brewer’s website.

There’s plenty more, and it’s free to download; 25,000 people have done this so far, and I personally find it invaluable (and I’m not just saying that because it also links to my blog).
So CaskFinder does a lot — but there are some things it doesn’t do. The beers it lists in each pub are the ales that were on the bar last time a Cask Marque inspector visited. As such, they’re a snapshot rather than an up-to-date record of what’s on the bar.
But is such a record possible on the fast-moving world of guest beers in a busy pub?

Terry Dicks would like to think so.

“In 2007 there were a lot more exciting beers making it to Cheltenham, where I live, and every time I found out about a beer I wanted to try, by the time I got to the pub it had gone. I was part owner of a software company along with three other keen ale drinkers, and we saw an opportunity that we started to develop a solution for.”
The solution was YourRound, launched in March 2010. Pubs signing up get their ales featured on a nationwide database, and can also make use of ‘Bar Manager’, which allows them to print tasting notes, table talkers, pumpclips and even generate mobile websites that punters can connect to. This is enabled by brewers who also sign up, supplying all the necessary information for their beers.

On the drinker’s side, members can plug in their favourite beers, and are then sent live notifications when these beers appear on bars in their area.

Your Round: sends users up-to-date information about available beers

“We have a great local example where people come 10 miles on the bus from Gloucester when they get beer alerts about Dark Star Hophead,” says Dicks. “There are drinkers who have been known to leave one pub to get Salopian Oracle in another. It’s all about keeping people informed and excited about what’s going on.”

There is the odd drawback, of course: as a punter I found it a little slow and cumbersome to set up my favourite beers, and on the pub side the system is totally reliant on barstaff regularly updating their range. But Dicks insists this is easier than one might think, and it can even be done by enthusiastic punters.

It’s still early days, but with one pub claiming the system has generated £2,000 in additional revenue, and a litany of delighted feedback from appreciative pubs and brewers, YourRound is a perfect example of how clever internet ideas can have a hugely positive impact on a pub’s business.