TWIS Asks: TapMap

They say knowledge is power. And why shouldn't that apply to a night on the town, too?

For craft beer enthusiasts, knowing what beers are on tap near them can shape the course of their whole night.

Looking for a way to make their search easier, self-described beer nerds Mick Cohn and Chris Flannagan teamed up to create TapMap, a website and app that aggregates beer menus in real time.

We sat down with them to talk craft beer, how the app works and their plans for the future.

How would you describe TapMap?

Cohn: It's essentially a beer locater. Anyone who loves craft beer probably understands the culture. It's a community that really values being in the know. They love to know who has what beer on tap, and they're the type of people who will travel to a specific bar for a specific beer. So you could go online to each bar's individual website and look, or you could spend five seconds using an app or even get a notification when your favorite beer is on tap near you.

Flannagan: It was a tool this town didn't have. It's great, because the tap line at a bar like Mr. Beery's can look drastically different at the end of the week than it did at the start. The bars can even update their listings in real time. So if they blow a keg, they can let customers know right away.

How did the idea first come about?

Cohn: Chris and I have known each other for a long time. We kind of became friends through craft beer. I knew he was a talented programmer, so when I had this idea, I brought it to him, and he said, "Let's be partners."

Flannagan: I've started a lot of small websites and apps, but I wanted to make something people would use and feel like it was something they needed to have on their phone. It's a tool that both of us would definitely use, so it was really a no-brainer.

I don't think I took it completely seriously until I actually made it. I get a lot of pitches for apps and websites, and they're not always great. If an idea is decent, I always look around online, because surely it's been done before. But the existing sites like TapHunter and BeerMenus didn't have any up-to-date information for the Sarasota area, so I saw a real opportunity to fill a void. After I built the first part of this and realized it was going to work, I started getting excited. I was staying up late every night just working on this.

Cohn: I would get texts in the middle of the night from Chris just saying, "Muahaha." I knew he was up to something good.

How does it work?

Flannagan: It's pretty simple. You pull up the website or the app, pick your region and you're shown a map with icons for all the bars in your area. Then you can pick a bar by name or location and see all the beers they have on tap. Everyone's been really on board with keeping their lists updated, so the information is as up-to-date as possible. If you want to know more about each beer, they all have individual links to their BeerAdvocate pages.

What kind of response have you seen so far?

Flannagan: People have been really supportive. When we first started, we thought we would just focus on Sarasota and Bradenton and maybe eventually move into Tampa, but we ended up growing really quickly. We're currently in Sarasota, Bradenton, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, and we're going to expand into Gainesville, Naples and Fort Myers soon. We've also had some serious interest from a few investors, so we're excited about what's ahead.

Cohn: We're releasing the first version of our mobile app now, which will be for Android first. In the next few months, we'll have an updated version that has push-notification capabilities that you can customize. It will also let you know how updated a bar's menu is. The more recently they've updated, the brighter their icon will appear. If a bar doesn't update for long enough, their icon can fade away completely.

What value do you see in something like this?

Cohn: These days, people want every little bit of information they can have — especially in the craft beer scene. I think people are realizing that they deserve something that's high quality. They want to treat themselves to a craft beer, and we want to help them find it.