BOSTON — Attention craft beer lovers – your next #MABeer is closer than you think. The Mass Brewers Guild, the state’s nonprofit organization that works to protect and promote the interests of craft brewers, has launched “Mass Craft Beer,” a new mobile application and beer trail map.
The free app, now available in iTunes and Google Play stores, includes every visit-able brewery across the Commonwealth in its passport program. Users can now carry their passport on their phone to tour, taste, check-in and never miss another stamp.
Features include: finding breweries near you via your geo location, check-in to breweries you visit and add them to your passport, earn rewards and merchandise by collecting stamps, get the latest event news with links to purchase tickets, create your own brewery tours with an interactive brewery map and directory, save your favorite beers to purchase later, and more.
Mass Craft Beer launches just in time for the Mass Fermentational, the organization’s upcoming beer festival and fundraiser set to take place on Saturday, Sept. 16 on Worcester Common. The festival tab within the app holds the event map, food vendor information, parking details, the list of participating breweries and where to find them, along with what they are pouring at the event.
“Massachusetts needed a beer trail map that could evolve and change as quickly as its craft beer scene,” says Katie Stinchon, executive director of the Mass Brewers Guild. “Consumers have been asking for an updated map of breweries, and brewers wanted a guide that could help drive traffic to their doorstep. This new mobile application does both.” To date there are 120 breweries across the Commonwealth with more than 30 in-planning slated to open before the close of 2017.
Paying homage to Massachusetts’ rich colonial history, app adventurers can earn ranks (private to major general) as they travel and explore MA craft breweries. Incremental badges are earned after visiting five breweries, and regions can be conquered after checking into 15 or more breweries from that part of the state. Collect all of the regional badges to earn the Beer Trail Commander Badge and a Mass Brewers Guild Prize pack which includes a pint glass, T-shirt and your name glorified on the Mass Brewers Guild website. Collect 100 stamps or more and have your name entered to win a beer dinner with Sam Adams’ Jim Koch, Harpoon’s Dan Kenary, and Night Shift’s Rob Burns. Five entries will win. Runner up will receive a private guided beer tour from City Brew Tours with 10 friends.
“Visiting our breweries is the best way to support the craft beer community in Massachusetts,” says Stinchon. “Breweries employ locals, drive traffic and tourism to the state and pour world-class craft beer to thirsty locals and travelers. We hope this new program helps craft beer lovers find their next favorite beer.”
The mobile application was developed by Brewers Marketing, and made possible thanks to the generous support of the Mass Brew Bros who assisted with data collection, Fat Basset Design who created all of the badge artwork, and to New England Label for financial support. Funds raised through the Mass Brewers Guild’s festivals, Power Beer Fest and the Mass Fermentational will help to launch and maintain this program.
For more information about the Mass Brewers Guild, visit MassBrewersGuild.org.
About the Mass Brewers Guild:
The Mass Brewers Guild is the state’s nonprofit organization and trade association that works to protect and promote the interests of craft brewers across the Commonwealth. Founded in 2007, by a group of committed and passionate brewers, the association is membership based, and open to all Massachusetts breweries licensed by the Federal Tax and Trade Bureau and the Commonwealth’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.