Ideas

I like the idea even though I am not a microbrewer.

I like this idea....how would you make money?

I like the idea too. I think this would be good to launch regionally initially -- if I tune in and there is only one microbrewery nearby, I'm probably not going to come back. But if you start off in a city/region that has a micro-brew 'scene' (if there is such a thing) then it will be more useful to the guy who doesn't know which bar to go to tonight. Also should be more compelling for the brewers to attract/compete for business. Success in one region can build into more regions/national.

All the best, good luck.

That's pretty cool. I know the graphics aren't done but what you do have looks good. Hmmm, that Shipyward Light looks good.

Oops, that's Shipyard Light. Maybe this be applied to other drinks like coffee or coffee beans.

thanks! And yes, it feasibly could be applied, provided the necessary data was available.

This is a very good idea and it's nice to see something so original. I think it would be nice to be able to reverse the search: ie type in the nameof a beer and it comes up on the graph. You need to make it clear that the horizontal axis is bitterness as this is only made clearon your forum post.
Good work. Love it.

Thanks very much, anathema! I forgot to drop my label for bitterness back in, good catch. And yes, there will be a text search tool and a full tagging system. :)

cool idea.... the logo is nice aswell

Could work...its potentially global, appeals to a niche market, ... could draw a select crowd

You got it! We want to appeal to a select crowd. Do one thing and do it the best.

Thanks re: the logo, Rizal... Done by a pro graphic designer (not me!)

There must be a market for this
Tommy

cant get through..i was ask for password...so far i can only see a skin and word: THIS IS BEERSPHERE

special beta test for CH Members:
http://www.beersphere.com/beta/index.php
user: demo pass: demo

This is an awesome idea.. like the layout design.. and logo :)

Thanks!!

Nice one bliss

He was a wise man who invented beer.

I guess that I am not clear at how you would attract people to your site. I am a beer drinker, and like different kinds, but at the end of the day I prefer to try them out by drinking them as opposed to by looking at them. I can imagine that even if you read about a beer that you like, you still have to be able to find a place to find the beer -- So an addition could be that you can mouse over the beer and it gives you locations where you can find that particular one... if you do that, then you can have the microbreweries pay for the qualified advertising. That would make it more useful in my eyes, although it still does not solve how you will get them to your site. Just some thoughts.

I assume money via adverts right.

I guess you would charge the breweries to promote their products. The interface is a nice idea but you could do with something to indicate how many products are at each level of the gradient.

Hi Mr Y,

Thanks for the comments! You must have taken a peek at our "to do" list! We are indeed connecting to a mapping service, and taking retailers and online sites, and telling you *where* to find the beer based on (your preference) of zip code or actual street address. That is a much bigger undertaking, but it is an integral part of why BeerSphere is going to be a powerful tool. Of course, all that work takes resources that I'm just gathering up. Regarding the idea of floating information over the top, that is another tool that will be integrated. Very Astute!

Our goal is to get every microbrew in america on our site, so there will never be a lack of beer to discover.

DaveK - yet another great idea, but we hadn't thought of that one. I'll definitely put it on the list!

Wonderful feedback, all!

Interesting idea. I could see this being very niche and have a lot of loyal visitors.

I like the website, a full gradient is always pleasing to look at. Maybe if you hold the mousebutton down, and move the pointer the beers could pop up for each level it reaches? Also how about introducing a special offer where the viewer can order 1bottle in a special package to his/her home for a taste? And a rebateticket inside for a 4 x 6 pack order with one 6 pack for free?

I guess a lot of people would not be able to travel to all different places but still being beer-lovers so this could be popular?

Have a beer of the week area, with a description and a small story telling how it came to be.

Try to get celebrities to come for (free) beer-tasting and rate the beers. This chould influence potential buyers?

A lot of people collect beer caps and labels, perhaps interesting to offer since they are produced in small volumes (and thus rare)?

Offer the gradient in a few different configurations, expanding the upper or lower part for dark beer/light beer only people. (upside down/black-white?).

Make small flashvideos for each beer showing how it behaves (foams etc.) when it is poured (for bars/clubs that think about getting new interesting labels).

Anyway just some thoughts..

Best
Torgrot

I like the idea, however I don't understand the business part of this. How do you want to make money?

Can you have a small root beer section?

reinventing the Beer mania...hmmmm

am an ex beer drinker..but this seems a good idea.
The visual "ads" and Beerpshere name i thought actually was a new brand. =)

Techguy: root beer is not a beer probably is a misnomer.

@MCaballes: Well its TRUE and somewhat false now.

Wikipedia says:

Traditional use

Root beer was a traditional beverage and herbal medicine. The beverage was often alcoholic, usually around 2%. As a medicine it was used for treating cough and mouth sores...

The soft Drink has:

... is non-alcoholic and is generally made using root beer extract or other flavored syrups along with carbonated water. The soft drink version of root beer constitutes about 3% of the American soft drink market
...

btw the statitistics is mind boggling!

More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year â€" producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.[10]

*The industry is dominated by a few international players.

Btw Check this out BLiss: http://www.cureforwh...er%E2%80%99s-palate/

Hi all,

Great link, Saigon ;)

Dutch_Vincent - we will make money by driving sales (brokering sales) in the burgeoning online beer market as well as promoting for breweries, helping them market. The typical Microbrewery marketing budget is somewhere around 3% of gross profits, which means they need lots of help!

Torgot, I believe you are seeing a full gradient because your monitor resolution is a little lower. I have a smaller image that I could use and should, but the intent has been to use floating windows to display information from the beginning anyway.

Tech - I could certainly support any drink, although root beer doesn't have the variations regular beer has, so the need to learn and understand what you *might* like goes away with basic drinks.

GREAT feedback, all!

Bliss - what assistance from the CH community would you need to achieve your business objectives?

Have you put a business plan together?

same questions with siddey... how about a Business Model? This would help you to market your idea.

I'm about 65% done with a business plan at this point. This coming week I'll have a better idea of what the needs are, but preliminary needs are a graphic designer (I have one potential but still fielding inquiries), a UI designer, PHP/MySQL/AJAX developer with some larger projects under their belt and familiar with MVC frameworks. Again, this really is just my preliminary thoughts about what we need, all could change! ;)

This idea seems very much like Real Beer
http://realbeer.com/

I love beer and like the look of you "beta" design page. Ijust am not sure what is going to seperate you from the market and make Beer Sphere unique enough to build a business.

Hi Thought,

Take some time to read through the comments or through my idea, you may find some unique qualities, plus, not all the cats are out of the bag yet!

i agree!

Hello Terg,

That would be great. We'd love to get them involved... maybe a UK edition would be in order, as the goal is to help these smaller breweries increase sales and exposure and better compete with the big players. I assume that most of the microbreweries in england don't ship their product over the big drink, so that division would mean we would have to separate (for now) by country. However, one of features is meant to help microbreweries connect with distributors worldwide.... OOPS! 1 cat out of the bag! :)

I love the idea (and voted 5) but think that a simple series of dots that show you where you can click would greatly improve the service. That's just an image in the background that you're clicking on, right? Why not just add a dot whenever you update the DB?

I like all of the features you're thinking about for the future, but another feature may be an "other people who like this beer also like..." which might yield different results than just beer that is near the one you like on the chart.

Hi Simon,

You've hit upon an important feature that has not been implemented yet, so kudos for keen insight! Right now it's blind clicking, which is fun but not so functional. In the future we will feature much more in terms of useful "markup" that appears on the grid. However, technology constraints may dictate that at least some of these features are only doable with flash. I'm trying to avoid flash dependency right now, but the people will get what the people want!

Thanks!

One more comment- related results of users. Another feature not implemented yet. We will have a tagging system which will also allow you to quickly jump to other product based on appealing keywords. In addition, a recommendation tool which takes your preferences and recommends new beer to try.

Hi,
It was not obvious for me to use the interface. You may give some more explanations and reduce the size of it as i didn't understand the point of clicking to the left or the right, is there some parameters based on the x axis?

Hi Jean

Tonight I will add in the explanation of the X-axis. I've been neglecting that piece of the puzzle, but the quick answer is that left is malty or sweeter, right is hoppy or more bitter.

Again, this is all absolutely raw "proof-of-concept" prototype stuff. The final RIA (rich internet application) will be intuitive and easy. I'm merely illustrating the concept in action. Thanks for viewing!

Just a thank you to everyone

As we head into the final stretch here, I want to thank everyone for visiting BeerSphere and checking it out. I deeply appreciate your feedback and warm encouragement. Win or lose, this experience has been absolutely wonderful and encouraging for me and BeerSphere! I hope that you continue to play an active role in shaping our future success!

ps: Please include MEAD in your beershare, after all you are on Cambrian House!

Best
Torgrot

Arrr! Beowulf would indeed be proud!

beer is bad

...but feedbacks are good!

Saw the site, looks really good - gonna have to try and find some of these brews now! Keep it coming!

Thanks, Herb! We will be able to show you where to find them eventually, based on your own zip code!

this looks like a fantastic idea. It's well thought out and the site looks good too!

Being an avid consumer of fine ales and bitters, I fully support any effort to help microbreweries prosper.