Brewer hopes new app makes us want to shout

BEER fans can scan tasting notes, as well as track what and where mates are drinking with new app.

Chris Milne and Darcy Laughlin try out a new iPhone beer app at Brisbane's Cloudland Bar. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

IT could be called the ultimate drinking game.

It is a world-first iPhone application that allows beer-lovers to scan and get tasting notes on nearly 500 beers, as well as track what beers their friends are drinking and where.

The leap into 21st century social marketing from Australia's oldest existing brewery, Cascade in Tasmania, is a bold move to create the ultimate guide to the amber fluid and cash in on generation Y's twin obsessions with mobile phone applications and social networking.

The Carlton & United Breweries brand has been working on the application with ad agency Droga 5 for several months and has listed nearly 500 beers.

Awaiting approval by Apple, the application is expected to be available free within the next fortnight, and industry observers predict it will be a hit not only in Australia, but also around the world.

The Brewer's Nose app lets users scan a beer's barcode using the iPhone's camera, bringing up a description of the beer, a video explanation of one of the 32 different styles from a brewer and a video suggestion from an independent chef on food matches.

Drinkers can add their own tasting notes and post them on Facebook. The application also lets them geo-tag were they tasted the beer and at what time - potentially revealing the depth of some people's affection for the fluid.

Cascade spokeswoman Mim Orlando said the app was designed to allow drinkers to discover new beers including, of course, Cascade.

Chris Milne, a 29-year-old Melbourne-based accountant, said he thought the app would be appealing to many of his friends who owned smartphones.

Read more about brewer hopes new app makes us want to shout at The Australian.