I’m lucky enough to live in Portland, Oregon, which is ranked one of the best cities in the world for craft beer. We have one of the premier craft beer festivals each year and Portland is home to the most breweries than any other city in the world. As a beer fan, it’s a good place to be.

As I’m constantly reviewing beer for my site dedicated to craft brewing, I’m always on the hunt for new beers and breweries to profile.

The newly released Untappd helps me keep on tabs of what my fellow craft brew fans are enjoying these days.

   

Checking-in to your pint

Since Foursquare popularized the notion of “checking-in”, it’s awesome to see the action applied to other contexts. In this case, with Untappd, the most basic function of the app is to check in and announce the pint you’re currently enjoying.

Untappd has an expansive beer database, cataloging even the most obscure beers from even small breweries. Checking-in is as easy as searching for your beer and selecting it by name. As you check in to your brew, you can add a location (powered by Foursquare), leave a brief note about the beer and apply a rating of 1 to 5 stars. Finally, you can announce your check-in via Twitter or Facebook.

Discovering new beers

Untappd makes it possible to find new beers, based on what your friends are drinking or based on what other Untappd members are enjoying in your local area. The default news feed in Untappd shows your friends, regardless of location and the beers they’ve checked-in to recently.  One aspect of the Untappd news feed is the easy scroll-ability and the user interface that brings pictures front and center.

In Oregon, there are craft breweries everywhere and there are great beers to discover that might just be a few doors down. In this case, go to the “local” tab in the news feed to see what other Untappd members are drinking and read their short reviews in the process.

Find a new watering hole

Visiting a new city or perhaps a new neighborhood and want to know what’s good? Click the compass button at the top of the app and you can find nearby bars, nearby beers or trending beers.

My favorite feature in this list is the nearby beers list, and I use this list to be filtered by those beers around me. As a creature of habit, I tend to go for the brews I know. However, with this feature in Untappd, I can see the brews that are gaining popularity in my area and I’m more apt to give them a try.

Nearby bars is a useful resource for finding a new place to enjoy a frosty pint when I’m in a new part of town. On more than one occasion, I’ve impressed my friends with my ‘local knowledge’ when we were trying to decide on a place to go.

Nokia Lumia owners that run Windows Phone 8 should really check out Untappd if you’re new to the craft brewing or if you’re just curious to what awesome beers are being discovered by your friends and other beer lovers on Untappd.

image credit: richtpt