Idunware Beer – Excel for Your Beers

It’s a little late for the cries of “technology is taking over” as it is quite clear that technology has taken over.  As such, we expect electronic gadgets and computer programs for everything we do.  I mean, really, we have a video game for doing such accessible activities as playing guitar and working out.  So a computer program that tracks your beer, not that far out, but it is kind of cool. 

Introducing Idunware Beer.  This is a program designed to keep track of all of your beer experiences in one place.  I’ll direct you to their website for a list of what this program can do, butI’m more interested in how it performs.

If you’re looking for a way to catalog the beer you’ve had, this program is perfect.  As a test I entered a handful of beers from various breweries and styles, making sure to have some overlap to see how the program handled sorting.  No problems at all.  Even better, it is completely intuitive and there’s almost no learning curve.  The program allows you to do something as simple as creating a list of beers you’ve tried, bars you’ve been to, etc, or you can go as in depth as tracking prices on the beers, quantities you’ve purchased or saving ratings and reviews.  Most importantly, for me anyways, it runs smoothly.   Idunware Beer shouldn’t crash your system or slow it down.

So, for what it is, I like the program.  For what I would want, or what I need, it’s got a long way to go.  My main issue with so many computer based resources for beer drinkers is the lack of mobility.  Most of the time when we need something like this, or a beer review site, we’re at a bar, at a beer store, or maybe just with a group of friends, trying to recall that beer we had last night, or last week.  If this program were available for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry (please?) it would become instantly the #1 program I use on my phone.

So, theoretically, now you have it on your phone, what next?  You have a means to review and save beers on the program, how about a method of loading reviews to RateBeer or Beer Advocate?  Retrieving information from these site would also be incredibly useful.  Even if this could be done from the PC, the program would gain a huge appeal.

Finally, and this is in the same vein as the last point, make it easy to share.  If I have reviews on my computer and I know Reader X has reviews on their program, I should be able to send a simple file via email that would allow me to combine our lists, with an easy way to determine who created the review.

In closing, if you’re looking for a computer based catalogging sytem for your beer experiences, this program is for you.  My problem is the goal seemed to be too simple and not as relevant in a connected beer drinker’s life.  To see more about the prgram, check the Idunware Beer website.