Perhaps that’s because they are generally user-generated and, thus, sourced from the geeks themselves. While wine ratings are now seen, at least by the cognoscenti, as the metric of the mainstream, beer ratings have long been a measure of geek appeal.

Despite the fact that each festival-goer was given a mere two ounces in a plastic cup, by Monday morning the beer had been reviewed on Untappd over 600 times, clocking in with a glossy 4.6 (out of 5) rating. There they found Tree House Brewing Company serving the first-ever pours of Give Me Truth, an imperial stout aged for nearly two years in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels. The first weekend in February brought thousands of beer fans to Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center for the annual Extreme Beer Fest (EBF), “the ultimate throwdown of craft beer creativity.” Despite the presence of such ballyhooed breweries as Florida’s Funky Buddha and California’s The Rare Barrel, when the gates opened, the vast majority of folks stormed for booth #28 in the back corner.

Wine app like untappd