Untappd is a social network/webapp/smartphone app that helps you track beers you’ve had, where you’ve had them, and what you thought of them. We’ve been using the app since it launched, and an all new version of the app for iOS and Android was just released. 

Last year I wrote a brief description of the Untappd smartphone application for Lifehacker.com, and since then I’ve been using the app on my Android phone very regularly. The service is a great way to capture your initial impressions on a new beer, and the social network aspects of Untappd are well done and can easily be ignored if you would just like to use the app to log your notes on beers you’ve had. You can also check-in to venues à la Foursquare and earn badges for different “achievements” like trying three different IPAs in a 30-day period.

The new app features a complete redesign. The layout and user interface has been improved, and the backed has been rewritten to speed-up the whole experience. We’ve had a chance to play around with the new version and think that it’s a nice improvement. One feature that we especially like is the progress bars on badges. You can now see just how close you are to an award you’ve been working on. The Discover tab is another new feature that shows you what beers and venues are popular and close to your current location. You can also see if any of your friends are drinking near by.

These location-based features are simple to disable from the control panel if you don’t want to broadcast your beer drinking to your friends.

They have also rebuilt their recommendation engine to provide more personalized recommendations.  Unfortunately the system makes no provisions for regional availability. Most of what it recommends for me sounds great; I’d love to try a Hopslam or Heady Topper, but those are not beers I can simply walk into a beer store to buy. It would be nice if the suggestions were filtered by geographic availability, but I imagine that would be technically challenging for the app.

You can sign-up for an account and use Untappd completely on the web, but the real strength of the service is their mobile apps available for iPhone’s with iOS 5+ and Android. Be sure to add Beer of Tomorrow to your friends list!

Do you use Untappd or another smartphone/webapp to keep track of beers you like or hate?

• Source: Untappd Blog – The New Untappd