Craft Check App Distinguishes Between Craft Beers and Fakes

For many beer drinkers, opting for a craft creation isn’t just about taste. It’s also about supporting the little guys and choosing microbreweries over multinationals.

But the fact that more and more consumers are spending their dollars on local produce is not going unnoticed by big companies. And they’re responding by bringing out beverages that might look, smell and taste like craft beers, but are, in fact, macrobrewed masqueraders.

So, a team of US-based entrepreneurs has come up with an app that can tell the difference between beverages from "real craft breweries" and those from "assembly line multinationals". It’s called Craft Check and its motto is "Drink Craft — Not Crafty".

Using an iPhone, the user scans the bottle’s barcode or searches by brewery name. The app responds by communicating whether the brewery meets the Brewers Association’s definition of ‘American Craft Brewery’. Thousands of producers are included and records are updated monthly, incorporating new businesses and buy-outs. Findings can be shared via Twitter and Facebook, meaning that friends can be kept in the loop.

The only catch for Antipodean drinkers is that ‘Craft Check’ is pretty much only applicable in the US. That’s because most other nations in the world don’t have a definition for ‘craft brewery’. It’s such a subjective term that deciding exactly what it means is pretty tough. Luckily, our team has taken out some of the guess work for you.

Via PSFK.