The Beer Mapping Project with the Google Maps API: Beer Mashup

The Beer Mapping Project, launched last October, brings together an unlikely combination-beer, beer lovers, beer brewers, beer distributors, a blog, an idea...and the Google Maps API?

The project is the brainchild of Jonathan Surratt, a 32-year old e-commerce major and beer enthusiast. Surratt's one-man project utilizes the Google Maps API to deliver mapped locations of recommended spots for-you guessed it-beer. But, not just any beer. According to Surratt, he wants to recommend places where you can find a "good" beer. To compile a list of the best places (how many could he really test alone) he solicits recommendations from beer drinkers across the country via his website and finds high-rated spots from other online resources, such as www.beerme.com, which rates breweries and their beer. Surratt's website, www.beermapping.com, is home to the free maps and has a growing audience and toolset.

The project was started after Surratt moved to Chicago and brewed up an idea to find the best spots for a good beer in the windy city. A North Carolina native, Surratt started with what he knew. He began his research of pubs, breweries, beer stores and beer bars in both North Carolina and Illinois (his new stomping grounds). Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin cities also made it into the first round of beer bests. He's been adding maps city by city ever since. He has, so far, logged over 3,000 locations in over 22 major cities around the country. Some of the major cities and outlying areas include Boston, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit, Austin, Tampa, and Philly.

The mapping tools and the Beer Mapping Project website are impressive and fun. The homepage of the Beer Mapping Project is host to a blog maintained by Surratt, detailing the growth of the project as each city is added-with some comments and words of encouragement from locals. The site is clean, the menu clear and Surratt's humor and passion really come through in his blog entries. But about those web-based, free maps-the search tools let you view maps of breweries (by region) or maps by city. You can also use the 'lookup' feature of the site to search for beer locations by name, address, city, state or zip code. (To give you an idea, I plugged in a search on 'Michigan' and received over 100 results.) The maps pinpoint recommended locations based on the criteria you select; a toolbar lists other beer locations in the region. The results are color-coded by brewpub, brewery, beer store, beer bar, and homebrew store, and include the address and phone number of each location. Simply choose a pinpointed location on the map to get detailed directions.

After spending a little time searching the maps and reading the blogs, I wanted to know more about some of the specific locations. Why are these spots recommended and what kind of beer could I expect to find there? Maybe this information will be added in the future, but for now, visit the forums section of the site or search the rating system on beerme.com. Even though you may not know what you're drinking when you get there, thanks to the Beer Mapping Project, you can bet it will be good.

For the times when you don't have computer access, Surratt has added an on-the-go solution as well. The growing toolset now includes a simple version of the site accessible on mobile devices. This scaled down version returns the beer location and a link to the location's official website (when available)-no map. The mobile-accessible site lets beer enthusiasts search while on-the-go, whether traveling or just looking for a good spot to hangout after work.

Behind the scenes, the project and its toolset rely heavily on the Google Maps API. The API is a beta tool provided by Google that allows a website to embed Google maps (for free) as long as they are publicly available and free. Surratt is also making use of the Yahoo! Geocoding API. He warns though, that map pinpoints may not be exact for some beer locations. The APIs return the latitude and longitude for a location and when addresses are not found, will sometimes return the closest location, which may not be your beer location at all. According to Surratt, this leads to some entries that are either "slightly wrong or really wrong." He recommends you check the directions (this is probably especially necessary if you're traveling a long distance or are just not very good with directions). The phone number is usually provided with the location information.

The Beer Mapping Project is growing fast and picking up momentum since being featured in articles in the Chicago Reader and Popular Science magazine. The project also received a mention on the NPR show All Things Considered, and it's currently finding its way to the top of tagging sites like del.icio.us. Although its user base is growing, Surratt is serving his beer mapping project on-the-house. There are no advertisements littering the blog, and although you will find referrals throughout his blogs (on sites you can visit to support the craft), they're his personal recommendations. He also sells Beer Mapping Project t-shirts-at no mark-up. Surratt asserts that he keeps his costs low through the use of the free APIs, his own work, and free contributions from readers, but he isn't completely against future advertisements. Somebody buy this guy a beer!

Aside from delivering maps, the Beer Mapping Project is bringing together a community of beer enthusiasts - and may even create some. Many local brewers have embraced the project and appreciate the recognition. Surratt is promoting those who promote the craft. He also recognizes his peers that rate beer locations around the world by posting links to these resources on his site. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about beer, but found Surratt's idea to be fresh and full-bodied and the delivery clean and well-brewed. Whether you're a beer enthusiast, a techie or just curious, you'll want to check out this home-brewed mapping project and help Surratt put it on the map.