App helps craft beer fans find venues and suggests brews

Untappd is an app that connects beer lovers with vendors and new drink recommendations based on their friends' favorites.

Craft beer has become an increasingly popular industry in recent years and we’ve already seen a student-owned microbrewery in Canada and New Zealand-based Yeastie Boys offer up the recipe to its open-source Digital IPA. Coming out of California, Untappd is an app that connects beer fans with vendors and new drinks recommendations. Using GPS location services, the app displays the bars and breweries nearest to the user that serve craft beers and ales, enabling the discovery of new places to drink. Users can check-in using the app, see where their friends are drinking, find the nearest place to find a particular product and share their favorite drinks with contacts. With this information, the app can also make smart recommendations based on the user’s taste and those of their friends. Untappd is free to download on the App Store and Google Play. Which other niche markets could benefit from an app such as this? Spotted by: Katherine Noyes