A couple months ago during American Craft Beer Week I mentioned that Craft Beer Guy had released a free mobile app. Unfortunately, at the time it was only available for Android devices as the process is significantly easier than for iPhone; on the downside it seemed that almost everyone I mentioned it to was the owner of an iPhone. I am happy to announce that the Craft Beer Guy mobile app is now available at the Google Store for Android devices and on iTunes for your iPhone. To be honest, the iPhone version has been available for about a month but I only announced it on my Facebook page as I wanted to do a little testing before announcing it to the world. You can download this free mobile app by searching for ‘craftbeerguy’ at your favorite mobile app store.

On Friday evening I conducted my first real test by sending out a notice via the app that I would be heading to Strand Brewing Company in Torrance and that the first person that presented me with the notice on their mobile device would get a free beer, courtesy of The Craft Beer Guy. Admittedly, it was a slightly risky test as I was not at Strand when I put out the notice so I really had no clue how busy they were or how many of their customers would have the app installed. We were there about 30-45 minutes when Barbara, our winner came strolling in to claim her free beer. It was a successful test for a couple of reasons; first off, I was able to confirm that people have not only downloaded the application but they do respond to it, which is even more important. The second thing that made this test a success is the fact that this was Barbara’s first visit to Strand Brewing Company. As Barbara is an unapologetic hop head she was pleasantly surprised to discover the hoppiness she enjoys so much is pretty prevalent in many of Strand’s brews. Her first Strand Brewing beer was their Expression Session, an experimental sessionable pale ale with a huge hop presence.

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