Visitors to Post & Beam Brewing in Peterborough may notice an unusual coaster on the table the next time they visit, which includes a URL for a new beer and brewery rating app, “I’d Tap That.”
The app was created by Greenfield resident Bridget Austin and her friend and former co-worker, Darren Hewson, a New Boston resident.
Austin and Hewson, both self-professed “beer nerds,” created the app for the same reason most inventors create things: They knew what they wanted, but they couldn’t find it among existing beer and brewery rating apps.
“There were other apps out there, but I never quite liked the way they worked. We used to talk about how we could make the existing apps better, and Darren finally said, ‘Let’s just build it,’ and a light bulb went off,” Austin said.
Austin and her husband, Greg, are avid travelers and beer enthusiasts who make it a point to check out local breweries wherever they go. When Bridget met Darren at a previous job, she discovered they shared a passion for beer. Hewson, who is British, says he loves American beer.
“It was surprising when I came here 20 years ago to find so many breweries. I was excited to find a scene kind of like the pub scene in England,” he said.
Bridget said the app came out of years of conversation about local beer.
“Darren and I met many years ago at another company. We would take lunchtime walks to break up the day, and we would both always be talking about breweries we visited. I loved the ideas of tracking the places I had been to,” she said.
Darren does the coding and programming for “I’d Tap That,” and Bridget does the design. The pair has been working on it for three or four years on nights and weekends. Both also work full-time in tech.
“It started out as a hobby, but after a few years, we felt we had built a good enough app that it was ready. We released it to the app stores in May, and we decided to really start pushing it in December,” Darren said.
“Then were like, oh crud–now we have users!” Bridget said.
The number of users on the app doubled in the first month, and Bridget and Darren are optimistic it will continue to grow.
“We went from 30 to 60 in the first weeks, and we’re almost at 100 now,” Bridget said.
Darren and Bridget say “I’d Tap That” works differently from most popular beer rating apps.
“We’ve visited a couple of breweries and chatted with brewers and brewery owners on their frustrations with the apps that are out there, and we incorporated that feedback into our app,” Bridget said. “Usually, what happens with apps is eventually, a big company buys it, and then the reviews stop being authentic, and then it’s all about clicks and money. Some of the apps out there will just say, ‘The beer is great.’ We’re trying to bring back real reviews from real people who know about beer.”
Bridget and Darren say “I’d Tap That” is unique in that it offers users several different options for reviews instead of just one overall review.
“We offer a brewery review, which is separate from the beer review, so people can rate things like the food and hospitality separately from the beer. Then the beer won’t get a bad rating because of things like parking, or someone didn’t like their burger,” Austin said.
Users of “I’d Tap That” can also do personal ratings to save their own private notes about a brewery or different beers, and keep track of their experiences without making it public.
“The concept of the personal rating is something we really wanted to do. You can make notes and have your opinion, but it won’t impact the overall rating of a brewery or the beer. A lot of people just want to keep a record of where they’ve been and what they liked or didn’t like,” Bridget said.
Bridget and Darren say that, along with providing an app for beer enthusiasts, their goal is to help small breweries and beermakers find out what their customers are thinking.
“Our goal is to help the breweries by getting more people in the seats at breweries,” Darren said. “The feedback can help the breweries decide what to brew, how much to brew, as well as ways to improve their facilities. It is super useful to them. They don’t get a lot of time to get feedback from all their customers, and with our app, they can see the data — people love one beer, or they have suggestions about things. The more information we get, the more information we can give the breweries.”
While the app is currently focused on the roughly 100 local breweries in New Hampshire, Bridget and Darren would like to keep growing and maybe even to take the app international.
“We’re hyper-focused on New Hampshire right now; we started with all the beer in New Hampshire. We’ve started to go to regional beer events. Then we can start adding beer from the other states, and eventually, all the breweries and all the beer in the country, and then maybe the world,” Bridget said.
Right now, they are working to spread the word about “I’d Tap That” to New Hampshire beer lovers. The coasters are part of their strategy, and they plan to visit as many New Hampshire breweries as they can to drop them off.
“We’re getting really serious about promoting now; it’s a lot of social media work,” Darren said. “As soon as we get some traction, we can expand to the rest of New England.”
Darren says so far, the app’s nearly 100 users have been very active.
“We have hundreds of reviews and hundreds of check-ins so far. New users seem to always bring a few friends,” he said.
Recently, the pair went to Nashua to meet up with one of the new app’s users.
“We met up with one of our users at Spyglass Brewery. He uses another app, and he’s avid about that one, but he liked our app better. He gave us some people to talk to, and he gave us a big shout out,” Bridget said. “It was very cool.”
“There are a lot of very passionate beer people out there. This is their thing. There are beer stamp books. Some people take part in that,” Darren said. “People write really in-depth reviews about the beer.”
The app includes non-alcoholic options, which are growing in popularity, especially with younger people.
“The younger crowd is starting to drink more non alcoholic; there are a number of breweries that are starting to brew non-alcoholic options. There are a bunch that are surprisingly really good,” Hewson said. “People are looking for that, too.”
The “I’d Tap That” app is available at most app stores.