BeerFans.com

You all know how I feel about Texas Law that prohibits a brewer from telling you where you may purchase his beer. But imagine if there was a site that coordinated distributors and retailers to find out what is available where.

From the release: "BreweryFans.com was created to make it extremely easy for beer fans to find where individual beer brands are available from their favorite breweries. We work with distributors and our client breweries to put their distribution data online while also allowing any fan or retailer to post beer lists for others to interact with on a Google map or filterable list. Here is a good example of the complete beer list at Swingbridge Beer & Wine in North Carolina. Each brewery has their own fan page (example: SweetWater Brewery) that brings in content about their beers, the latest Twitter talk, YouTube videos, and a unique Flickr slideshow. When fans join a brewery fan page, they are asked what beers that person has tried and this data is then sent to the brewer so they can see what their females vs. males are liking or the tastes of certain demographic. Finally, one revolutionary and exciting feature is the email alerts capability which lets a user receive an email when a specific beer brand (example: Dogfish Head 90 Minute) is distributed in their city. Breweries can then use this email alert data to better see where demand is for their various brands of beer, which can help convince a retailer to carry their beer." And an iPhone app is coming in a few months.

It's still early in the development of the site, but this has a lot of potential, especially if the distributors get involved.