beer.fm?
August 17, 2010 12:00 PM Subscribe
Are there any websites like last.fm, but for beer?
Last.fm is a great way to keep track of what you listen to, both for personal review and to show other people as a quick snapshot of your tastes. Why not do the same for beer? It would be awesome to have a "beer.fm" where you could quickly "scrobble" your recent drinks. Something virtually identical to last.fm would be ideal: Charts of top-drank styles, breweries, and specific beers in various timeframes. The ability to embed your charts on the profiles of your various web personas, just like last.fm, would be killer!
Is there a service like this already in existence? I suspect there are things like this but more for personal consumption tracking -- not really with the same social aspect of a service like last.fm. For instance, remembeer for Android (which I found thanks to these posts looks to be just a way to keep a personal beer log/database of what you've had. I'm envisioning something bigger, with charts, statistics, and social features. Plus last.fm is ubiquitous - cross platform, easy to get data into, etc. I'm envisioning something with Android/iPhone/WM/PC/Mac/Linux apps and a great web interface. Basically, beer.fm.
Does such a thing exist?
(And yes, I already checked out http://beer.fm/ - seems to be a placeholder...)
Last.fm is a great way to keep track of what you listen to, both for personal review and to show other people as a quick snapshot of your tastes. Why not do the same for beer? It would be awesome to have a "beer.fm" where you could quickly "scrobble" your recent drinks. Something virtually identical to last.fm would be ideal: Charts of top-drank styles, breweries, and specific beers in various timeframes. The ability to embed your charts on the profiles of your various web personas, just like last.fm, would be killer!
Is there a service like this already in existence? I suspect there are things like this but more for personal consumption tracking -- not really with the same social aspect of a service like last.fm. For instance, remembeer for Android (which I found thanks to these posts looks to be just a way to keep a personal beer log/database of what you've had. I'm envisioning something bigger, with charts, statistics, and social features. Plus last.fm is ubiquitous - cross platform, easy to get data into, etc. I'm envisioning something with Android/iPhone/WM/PC/Mac/Linux apps and a great web interface. Basically, beer.fm.
Does such a thing exist?
(And yes, I already checked out http://beer.fm/ - seems to be a placeholder...)
Does BeerAdvocate handle what you're looking to do?
posted by moviehawk at 12:03 PM on August 17, 2010
posted by moviehawk at 12:03 PM on August 17, 2010
Beer Universe may fit the bill. It has various social networking features and a recommendation system. It also has an iPhone app, and they're soliciting feedback about developing an Android app.
posted by jedicus at 12:04 PM on August 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jedicus at 12:04 PM on August 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
If someone could somehow get it to stream its recommendations, for free, that would be ideal.
While we're waiting for the future, there was this arduino+kegerator+ipad thinger from Make in the feeds recently.
posted by notyou at 12:09 PM on August 17, 2010
While we're waiting for the future, there was this arduino+kegerator+ipad thinger from Make in the feeds recently.
posted by notyou at 12:09 PM on August 17, 2010
Response by poster: @moviehawk - I'm already a Beer Advocate member and am regularly on the site. I don't know of any aspect for cataloging your drinks quickly and generating charts, etc. You can review beers, and it keeps a list of ones you've reviewed, but that's about it.
@jeducus - Looks interesting, but very similar to Beer Advocate. From a quick review, the same shortcomings of BA are apparent here - can't actually log each beer consumed (like you would scrobble a music track on last.fm) or anything like that. Unless I'm overlooking it...
Last.fm is nice because it's not so much a community (although there are community features) as it is a dumping grounds that is a quick place to dump all this raw data and have awesome charts and statistics generated. You could do the same thing in Excel/Access/etc but it's not nearly as extensible, ubiquitous or convenient. Not much fun if you're the only one doing it.
posted by sprocket87 at 12:12 PM on August 17, 2010
@jeducus - Looks interesting, but very similar to Beer Advocate. From a quick review, the same shortcomings of BA are apparent here - can't actually log each beer consumed (like you would scrobble a music track on last.fm) or anything like that. Unless I'm overlooking it...
Last.fm is nice because it's not so much a community (although there are community features) as it is a dumping grounds that is a quick place to dump all this raw data and have awesome charts and statistics generated. You could do the same thing in Excel/Access/etc but it's not nearly as extensible, ubiquitous or convenient. Not much fun if you're the only one doing it.
posted by sprocket87 at 12:12 PM on August 17, 2010
Response by poster: @notyou - KegMate looks AWESOME! Wish there was a version of that available for the public/handhelds :(
But that's definitely the direction I'm thinking...
posted by sprocket87 at 12:15 PM on August 17, 2010
But that's definitely the direction I'm thinking...
posted by sprocket87 at 12:15 PM on August 17, 2010
With Beer Universe you rate beers and from those ratings it points you to other beers you might like based on other people's ratings. It's similar to Netflix or iTunes recommendations.
posted by jedicus at 12:23 PM on August 17, 2010
posted by jedicus at 12:23 PM on August 17, 2010
Response by poster: @mkb - LivingSocial looks to have potential, although again it's more about keeping a list of what beers you have tried "ever", or want to try, rather than a place to input each and every drink...
@jedicus - That sounds nice, though I'm not really looking for a recommendation service (original post didn't really mention that at all ;))
posted by sprocket87 at 12:27 PM on August 17, 2010
@jedicus - That sounds nice, though I'm not really looking for a recommendation service (original post didn't really mention that at all ;))
posted by sprocket87 at 12:27 PM on August 17, 2010
Response by poster: remembeer, that I mentioned in the OP, actually looks to be closest to what I wanted in the way of functionality but there's no other interface besides the Android client (although I use an Android phone, so that works out) -- no web version, API, connectivity to Facebook, etc. It does have a Twitter post function. Maybe I'll contact the devs to see what their goals for expansion are...
posted by sprocket87 at 12:29 PM on August 17, 2010
posted by sprocket87 at 12:29 PM on August 17, 2010
My apologies. last.fm describes itself as a site that recommends music based on what you listen to, so I assumed that was implied by "something virtually identical to last.fm."
posted by jedicus at 12:35 PM on August 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jedicus at 12:35 PM on August 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
You might try All Consuming--not limited to beer, or anything in particular, but it certainly seems like you could use it for that.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:43 PM on August 17, 2010
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:43 PM on August 17, 2010
Response by poster: @jedicus - Sorry, wasn't trying to snub your suggestion, but it didn't really fit the requirements I outlined in the OP, that's all. Yes, part of last.fm's featureset includes recommendations, but I was pretty clear in detailing what aspects I was looking to emulate, and didn't mention that. Anyway, I'll look through that site more closely to see if there's anything that might do the trick. Thanks for the tip.
@monju_bosatsu - Thanks for the suggestion. I actually have an All Consuming account already, and in fact I had tried using this to log my beer ages ago. However, it looks to be just like LivingSocial - more about tracking whether or not you've ever had it, not tracking statistics on how many, etc...
posted by sprocket87 at 12:56 PM on August 17, 2010
@monju_bosatsu - Thanks for the suggestion. I actually have an All Consuming account already, and in fact I had tried using this to log my beer ages ago. However, it looks to be just like LivingSocial - more about tracking whether or not you've ever had it, not tracking statistics on how many, etc...
posted by sprocket87 at 12:56 PM on August 17, 2010
@jedicus - thanks for thinking of us
@sprocket87 - we're the guys at Beer Universe - not trying to rep the product, but just want to know what features may be helpful for a beer.fm type of product? We're always looking to innovate and create something that can differentiate us from the Beer Advocate's of the world - recommendations are just one aspect. What else would really be helpful.
Once you guys list down features you want, our team will be quick to implement!
Cheers,
Beer Universe Guys
posted by BeerUniverse at 11:51 AM on August 19, 2010
@sprocket87 - we're the guys at Beer Universe - not trying to rep the product, but just want to know what features may be helpful for a beer.fm type of product? We're always looking to innovate and create something that can differentiate us from the Beer Advocate's of the world - recommendations are just one aspect. What else would really be helpful.
Once you guys list down features you want, our team will be quick to implement!
Cheers,
Beer Universe Guys
posted by BeerUniverse at 11:51 AM on August 19, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the response! I'd be happy to elaborate on some feature requests; perhaps I could get your email for easier communication?
Thanks,
Jesse
posted by sprocket87 at 8:50 AM on August 25, 2010
Thanks,
Jesse
posted by sprocket87 at 8:50 AM on August 25, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sprocket87 at 12:02 PM on August 17, 2010