{"id":21335,"date":"2013-07-27T11:33:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T16:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=21335"},"modified":"2013-07-27T11:33:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T16:33:35","slug":"plan-your-travels-so-youre-always-close-to-good-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/07\/27\/plan-your-travels-so-youre-always-close-to-good-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan your travels so you’re always close to good beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I haven’t been travelling much in the last few years, I always appreciate the chance to sample the local wines and beers in the regions I visit. Wired<\/em> Mapland<\/a> looks at some mapping projects to make that even easier (for craft beer, anyway):<\/p>\n

Researching a recent business trip to San Diego (okay, not entirely business), I checked out two of them: The Beer Mapping Project<\/a>, and Brewery Map<\/a>. Both utilize Google\u2019s map API (short for application programming interface, the set of programming instructions that enables developers to build new websites and apps that tap into an existing website\u2019s data and functions), and they\u2019re both easy to use: type in a location, and a map and list appear telling you what\u2019s nearby. Brewery Map has Android and iPhone apps; several independent apps use the Beer Mapping Project\u2019s API.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big reason we do what we do is we think it\u2019s important, especially with the craft beer culture that\u2019s growing, that people get out there and connect with the beer they like to drink, and help promote small businesses making craft beer, and meet the people who are making the kind of beer they like,\u201d said Jason Austin, one of the trio of beer-loving developers behind Pint Labs, which created Brewery Map and the database behind it, BreweryDB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both sites rely on users to enter data, from plugging in the addresses and hours of existing brewpubs to adding new ones as they crop up. That means the sites are more useful in areas with more craft beer drinkers and can be a bit spotty elsewhere. It also means the more people who use them, the better they\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a brief review of their relative strengths and weaknesses:<\/p>\n

The Beer Mapping Project<\/a>. WIRED: Lets you filter search results by type, making it easy to distinguish breweries from brewpubs, bars, and stores that sell microbrew. Click on a pin, and a window pops up with the official website, as well as links to reviews on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer. You can also look up homebrew stores. There are international maps too. TIRED: Beer trip planner isn\u2019t very intuitive. Or maybe it doesn\u2019t work. I got tired of trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n

Brewery Map<\/a>: WIRED: Great beer trip planner. Plug in two destinations and use a pulldown menu to indicate how far out of your way you\u2019re willing to go for microbrew (see map above). TIRED: Designated driver not included. All the pins look the same, so if you want to find, say, a brewpub that serves food, you\u2019ll have to do some extra Googling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Should I decide to drive all the way to Minneapolis to catch a Vikings home game, here’s the high-level view of my trip according to BreweryMap<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"BreweryMap<\/p>\n

If I’d already arrived at my destination, the Beer Mapping Project<\/a> comes to my thirsty aid:<\/p>\n

\"BeerMapping<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I haven’t been travelling much in the last few years, I always appreciate the chance to sample the local wines and beers in the regions I visit. Wired Mapland looks at some mapping projects to make that even easier (for craft beer, anyway): Researching a recent business trip to San Diego (okay, not entirely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,13],"tags":[210,624,202],"class_list":["post-21335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-usa","tag-beer","tag-maps","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-5y7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21340,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21335\/revisions\/21340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}