Until scientists much smarter than us figure out how to make pouring beer out of an iPhone a reality (ala that sweet Bud Light commercial), we’re going to stick to consuming our favorite beverage the best way we know how – in copious quantities. However, that’s doesn’t mean saddling up on your favorite bar stool isn’t a place for your phone too because there are plenty of other awesome apps that will get you there and keep you entertained in the process.
Happy Houred
What’s the only thing better than a nice cold one come quitting time? A cold one that costs less than your morning coffee. With Happy Houred and an iPhone, you can find all the beer, liquor and wine specials in your immediate vicinity within seconds of walking out the front door – for free.
Pintley
IMDB meets Facebook, Pintley is part enormous beer database and part social network. Rate beers you like or hate and Pintley hooks you up with recommendations and points. Top users each month and three winners chosen at random get free gift cards for craft beer. Best of all, it’s free and there are apps for iPhone and Droid – along with a mobile site if you don’t have an app friendly phone.
Beer Cloud
Beer Cloud is the digital equivalent of that friend you had in college that spent too much time “studying” beer, except they graduated. Using the Great Brewers community, Beer Cloud helps you out with food and beer pairings, the ability to locate great craft beers and a little bit of history about each brew and brewery. Want to impress your friends and the lady without ever taking your hands off your iPhone or Droid? Download this app and craftily class it up a bit.
Beer Stat
On average, how often do you have just one beer? One beer turns into a sixer more often than not, and it’s difficult to keep track of your lifetime achievement records when even your beer goggles are cloudy. Enter the Beer Stat app. This mobile beer tracker makes keeping track of your daily, weekly and monthly consumption statistics (including dollars and calories) easier than ordering a second round.
Beer Universe
The Beer Universe app is your ticket to over 3,000 beer profiles and ratings. Rate beers yourself based on aroma, appearance, flavor and palate and Beer Universe recommends pours that will please your palate. Since it syncs with the Beer Universe website, the recommendations delivered to your iPhone or Droid are updated faster than your blood alcohol content.
Find Craft Beer
Location based apps are all the rage these days, but for too long they’ve been used for things like locating late-nite Mexican food, finding thrift stores and spying on spouses. Find Craft Beer for the iPhone and Droid is Google Maps used for the benefit of men everywhere – to locate quality craft beer.
iBrewMaster
If you brew your own beer, iBrewMaster is the best $7 you will ever spend. Combining schedules, recipes, batches and the ability to babysit your beer every step of the way makes this app as essential as hops and malted barley. If you don’t brew yet, this app alone is a reason to start.
The Beer Bible
Beer has been around longer than all of us, and it has quite a history. The Beer Bible taps into the part of brain that enjoys watching Discovery Channel shows for hours by putting access to all of that history right at your fingertips. Learn about beers from hundreds of different breweries the world over and common beer terminology and then post your own observations and comments right to Facebook.
For obvious reasons, testing all of these apps was quite difficult. If we overlooked any apps, feel free to leave a comment below. We’ll test them as soon as we’re done recovering.
