The Collecting Game

Beer enthusiasts are going electronic: as beer social media sites encourage drinking new beers, breweries must change or be left behind.

The way we drink beer is evolving. In the age of social media, streamline communication, and app-ifying of everything, even the way we drink beer is getting connected. It’s no surprise blogs about beer have continued to increase in popularity with sites such as Guys Drinking Beer and Boak and Bailey. More interestingly though, is the creation and success of a beer drinker’s social media site Untappd, an app which offers a way to share what beers you’re drinking with your friends. While this is a sound idea, I really want to take a closer look at what the secondary features on sites like Untappd are doing, and what it says about the state of the craft scene.

I first heard about the program while bartending at a craft beer bar, when a customer requested his bottle back after I poured it in a glass so he could take a picture of it to post on Untappd. “It’s a cool way to let your friends know what you’re drinking” he told me. While this event was unusual almost two years ago when I first saw it, it has become an everyday phenomena, where I see patrons constantly pulling out their phones to record their thoughts on the beer they’re drinking via a “Check-in” allowing a rating on a 1–5 star rating system.”

With a slogan “Drink Socially” Untappd describes itself as “a new mobile web app that allows you to socially share the brew you’re currently enjoying, as well as where you’re enjoying it. But it’s popularity isn’t just from it’s sharing element, it acts a way to keep a log of the beers you have drank. “I drink so many beers, I forget my opinions on them.” Is a statement I hear often from patrons.

Sharing where you’re drinking beer with your friends and logging your thoughts on beer may be the reason for the app’s creation, but I’ll argue the success comes with its reward program. Untappd doesn’t care how many beers you drink, but only how many unique check-ins you have, meaning how many different NEW beers you drink. It rewards you by displaying this number along with your “badges”, awards you have gotten for drinking a certain number of required beers, rewarding your for drinking diversely.

Whether badge features creates a desire to try more beer, or Untappd just recognizes beer drinkers obsession with new beers, it successfully capitalizes and encourages a behavior which destroys brand loyalty and ultimately changes the landscape for the market of craft beer. Consumers no longer want a great beer. They want twenty great beers, released seasonally, that are unique and inventive, costing no more than 12$. Jacob Halls, owner of Convergence Consulting, a consulting group for craft alcoholic beverages, says “Brand loyalty is a thing of the past.” and that “Now it is the what is new, what is seasonal, “What haven’t I had yet? crowd.”.

Now this problem is one breweries are going to have to overcome from now on. I know first hand how difficult it is to sell beer someone’s already tasted as I’ve worked at a brewery who only has two SKU’s (different styles of beer) on the shelf. “I love your Rye IPA, customers have just already had it.” is a comment I get a lot. The next conclusion you have is probably going to be “Well make more good beer!”, and to that: it’s not that easy. Last August my brewery began the process of getting a new beer on the shelf. First you perfect the recipe, then you commission the artwork, approve the labels with the federal government, approve the labels with the state, file the order for cans. 6 months later, we’re still waiting. Creating the beers is more than a beer making game, it’s a time management game. As a brewery run by four guys, we’re falling behind. The demand for more beer creating a work increase is just one of the many obstacles breweries will have to overcome with this change in drinking habits.

I’m not the only one to believe that this is going to be a problem breweries have to face in the future. Some bloggers have been so annoyed by Untapped that they have posted ways to use Untapped without ruining craft beer. Brand loyalty IS being left behind, and breweries will have to adapt or lose its value in the industry.