Sponsored Guest Post by Appsy, LLC
Just like a new craft beer being added to your favorite brewery’s lineup, technology has a new player in town that’s destined to improve how craft beer aficionados enjoy their favorite pastime. The Craftie™ Beer App will be available for download on iOS and Android devices in November, but needs support from craft beer lovers first to become a reality.
Craftie™ is a new beer app that will feature a robust database of the country’s best breweries and craft beers. Users have three search options, including searches by brewery name, beer style or geographically. Loaded with exclusive brewery stories, brewmaster profiles and tons of information about the craft beers themselves, Craftie™ will also allow users to make notes and rate the craft beers they love most. Sounds perfect, right? If you think so, then it’s important to head over to CraftieBeerApp.com/kickstarter to make a pledge before August 19th.
For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter.com, it’s a popular website that allows entrepreneurs to seek funding for all kinds of creative projects, ranging from technology to art. Creators have a monetary goal to complete their creative endeavor, and offer rewards to those who pledge funds to their project. But it’s an all-or-nothing proposition; projects must be fully funded or no money changes hands. In the case of Craftie™, funds will go toward continuing the development of the iOS and Android native apps, acquiring the servers to power the platform, and completing any and all user testing so that Craftie™ can be released as a polished and refined app. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, the app will be available for download this November.
At the time of this writing the app’s Kickstarter campaign already has over 60 backers, and buzz about Craftie™ has spread far and wide via social media and the blogosphere. Created in Charlotte, NC by two craft beer-drinking entrepreneurs, a launch party at one of their local watering holes, World of Beer SouthEnd, topped 70 attendees. But the app hasn’t just garnered local support; national sites such as CraftBeer.com, NorCalBeers.com and BrewBound.com have taken notice of Craftie™ as well. In fact, over half of the app’s backers are beyond Charlotte, with a few supporters chipping in from overseas, too.
Hailed as the “Wikipedia of Craft Beer,” Craftie™ is a premium app with rich content and a well-designed user interface. It will also come stocked with large, beautiful images of breweries, brewmasters, logos, tap art and label art, all of which will make it easier to recall and recognize craft beers in the future. Though there are existing beer apps on the market, most are social media-driven and are lacking in the type of depth that Craftie™ provides. For example, your days of forgetting the name of that beer you sampled and loved are over; by using the nifty personal database housed within Craftie™, you can keep track of all of your favorites. And when you’re on vacation and decide to plan an impromptu brewery tour? All of the information you need is now right at your fingertips.
That’s just a couple of situations in which Craftie™ is an invaluable tool. It’s also why it’s important to waste no time in throwing your support behind it. The best way to do that is to make a pledge on CraftieBeerApp.com/kickstarter. It’s no secret that new technology is helping innovative breweries create great craft beer. With Craftie™, now technology also has a chance to change, for the better, how you learn about, interact with, and keep track of the craft breweries and beers that you experience.
For more information on Craftie™, visit http://www.CraftieBeerApp.com/, like the Craftie™ Facebook page, or follow on Twitter at @CraftieBeerApp.
Based on this post I don’t think Craftie™ thinks I’m very smart. “Hailed as the ‘Wikipedia of Craft Beer'”, by whom? Your mother and your lawyer? Please.
@Stuart – Actually, we do not think anyone is “not smart.” Also, we don’t have a lawyer, but do ask that you not bring our mother into this.
In terms of our statement, “Hailed as the Wikipedia of Craft Beer,” that’s what’s been attributed to how our app is being designed by those that have been learning about it for over the past month when we first announced it.
We’re really just two guys that love craft beer and wanted to make an app that allowed us to learn more about the breweries specifically and the beers they make. We didn’t want to focus on the social aspect, which is great for some of the others, but wanted to have our own straight informational tool that allowed us to capture our craft beer drinking experience.
It appears that you may not choose to use this app, but we hope that you’ll at least check it out once it is released.
Sooo what makes this app any different from all the other beer app?
@Beer Craving – Our focus is on educating you about the breweries and the beers themselves. So, for instance, if you tried a Big Boss Aces and Ates and it was your first experience with it, you could search on Craftie, find Big Boss Brewery, and then read about:
– The brewery’s brand story
– Their history of how they got started complete with photos
– Their brewmaster’s profile complete with picture
– All the contact details, brewery tour info, etc.
– Then we move to the beers they make with each one having their own profile (style, description, what makes them unique, the story of what lead to their brewing,) but also shows the label art and tap art (as larger images on the screen that you can actually see) so that you can easily identify them when shopping for them or checking the taps at your favorite watering hole.
The big additions that we love the most are the ability to track your own individual, private notes on the beers that you have tried complete with your own rating and ability to add them to lists (Say, “tried”, “favorites”, etc.) so that you can quickly and easily pull back up your favorites or ones you’ve tried so that you don’t buy the same one that you didn’t like the last time you were doing a tasting night.
So with your app, you can learn anything you need to about the brewery and beers PLUS track your own craft beer tasting experience. It’s like your resource guide to your craft beer experience.
The final difference is that we plan to launch with more than 2,000+ breweries listed in the United States (there’s more that are “planning”) with probably around 20,000 beers.
If there’s something we learned researching the other beer apps out there, it’s that you’re only as good as your database!
So for $10 I get a copy of the app when it launches? How much is it going to cost anyway? $1.99? $2.99? $4.99? Also, what happens if your goal is not met? Does money get refunded? Are you guys applying for a loan? If not, why should we give you our money? Exactly why is $50k needed?
Hi @deadweights – Yes, the app will likely end up costing less once released, however, to make it a reality we need the funds to help finish the actual project. Without it, we will be struggling to complete the project of both a native iOS and Android app for Craftie.
Hence those that are giving to our Kickstarter campaign are those that want to see an app like this available for them to use in their own craft beer drinking experience and are willing to give a few more dollars than it will eventually cost to help make that happen. They are our “supporters” more than our “customers” and we are very thankful to have them!
We realize that not everyone will or can give to us, but there have been quite a few at this point that have supported us by spreading the word about what we’re trying to do via social media and their own personal network. We thank them as well and it’s a big help!
As for the funds, we need the $50K for 3 big components of this project: 1) to finish the development of the native iOS app, 2) to finish the development of the native Android app, 3) to acquire the necessary servers to actually power the platform as the interface is through native apps, but the entire database, media file delivery, and account information is all stored on the server. We’re wanting to build the most refined app that we can and that has costs associated with it. We could cut tons of corners and use simple “build your own app” tools, but we know it’s not what we want… and we’re pretty sure it’s not something craft beer enthusiasts would want either. Maybe we’re a bit optimistic at that.
And as for Kickstarter, the way it works is that you’re actually only “pledging” your dollars. No money actually changes hands unless we are successfully funded, which means your credit card is only charged once on the day our project ends and only if it successfully reaches or exceeds the funding goal.
I hope that helps answer some questions, but let me know if you have more!
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