Recommended “Game” — Untappd

by A.J. Coltrane

Drink beer, receive badges!

That doesn’t sound like an “enabler” app at all, does it?

From the Untappd website:

Explore Nearby Popular Bars & Beers

Not sure where to grab a pint? Untappd shows you popular bars nearby and what’s on tap.

 

Discover What Your Friends Are Drinking

The best recommendations come from your friends, so find out where & what they drink.

 

Share What & Where You’re Drinking

Share reviews, ratings and photos of the beers you drink with your friends around the world.

 

Drink New Beers, Unlock Badges

Expand your palette by trying new & different beer styles and unlock achievements along the way.

Untappd has a fun “game” element to it. You get badges for drinking different types of beer. You get badges for drinking multiples of one type of beer. You get badges for drinking beer at odd hours. At one point my traveling companion got a badge for drinking on the ferry. “Ohoy Matey!” It makes casual beer drinking a potentially entertaining surprise.

Untappd has a lot of other neat features too. It’s a giant crowdsourced look at what everyone is drinking, and where. You can search by brewery — right now I can see that people are drinking Night Owl at the Elysian. It functions as a journal of what you’ve been drinking — it allows for comments and ratings, and you can save pictures too. We’ve shown this to a few people, most of the time they’ll cackle, then download it as fast as they can.

Highly recommended, and free!