Editor’s note, this post is crossposted here from my other blog about craft brewing, PintsandSteins.com.
What’s on tap around you? What’s the latest brew available at your favorite local bar?
There’ a favorite service of mine called Taplister that’s been around for a few years. For beer lovers, Taplister is a website and mobile app available for iPhone and Android (there’s no Windows Phone app – I’m trying to change that) that lets you either search for a specific beer around you and also shows you what’s on tap at the tavern or pub in your area.
Here in Salem, Oregon, we have a few establishments such as Raen Brew and Venti’s that rotates taps constantly. In this case, Taplister shows me what’s on tap as the database is constantly updated by personnel at these brew establishments.
Taplister has been around since 2009 and I know the CEO – Kerry Finsand. Earler this year Kerry went through Upstart Labs in Portland and has re-launched the service with new emphasis on monetizing the service, which before was a side project for Finsand and the others involved with Taplister.
If you are the proprietor of fine craft brews, such as a restaurant, bar or tavern, using Taplister means you have visibility on the web in a very active beer community. By keeping Taplister up-to-date, beer consumers know what’s on tap and available at your establishment. Access to Taplister for businesses is $99/month. Here’s Techcrunch’s perspective:
And for bars and breweries, Taplister should provide a relatively easy way to update their menu via Web browser, telling customers about exactly what they have in stock. (That can be particularly important if you’re a small brewery without much of a marketing budget.) That information will be available in Taplister, but it can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter, and even through something that the company is calling a Digital Beer Board — a digital menu meant to be displayed in the store on an HDTV or 1080 pixel display.
Also, Meet the Startup recently profiled Kerry Finsand in an interview:
For a few of my favorite taplister links of awesome Salem beer bars, see:
- Venti’s Cafe and Taphouse
- Venti’s Cafe in downtown Salem
- Raen Brew