#GABF Big Friendly Guide

In the category of  "ask and you shall receive" ... I got an email from my Contact Me form today in response to my blog post "My #GABF Game Plan".

Honestly, I was a bit bummed out that GABF spent the time and effort to develop an iPhone app. I love the concept. I just don't have an iPhone. Not only don't I have an iPhone, but I will never purchase an iPhone. My wife has an Android phone, so it would be better for me if they developed an Android app. But, personally, I think it would make much more sense to develop part of their website with this sort of functionality so EVERY smart phone could take advantage of the data they are making available for iPhone users.



And, yesterday, I got this email from Devon (his twitter handle is @GABFBFG ... I'm going to be sure to #FF him tomorrow!)

He is obviously a computer geek like me (only using his geek powers for good rather than evil). He is developing a website designed basically (as far as I can tell from his email) to give me what I want ... information to track breweries and beers at the GABF. It is mostly not publicly visible, so I really have an idea how it will turn out. I will absolutely keep it bookmarked, though, and keep an eye on it.

This seems like something I would do if I wasn't so lazy!

The website is:  http://www.gabfbfg.com.  There isn't much to it, yet, but check it out as we get closer to GABF. I am really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

click here to show/hide email

Hi Eric, I saw your blog post (http://blog.ericshepard.com/2011/09/my-gabf-game-plan.html) and thought you might be interested in what I'm working on. I've been attending the Saturday afternoon session every year since I moved to Colorado (6 years back now). I've revised my game plan every year, trying to hit old favorites, but also find some new gems each time. The past couple of years, in which I've tracked the beers I've tasted, and roughly how I'd rate them, I've managed to only average around 30 sampled. Obviously just a drop in the bucket which is why I'm eager to hedge my bet a bit by leveraging the ratings of others who share my style preferences. Anyway, if you have a chance, please take a look at (what little is publicly visible) of my site at http://www.bigfriendlyguide.com (it redirects to gabfbfg.com). I am furiously coding to finish it up so there will be much more to see soon but suffice it to say that it should work on any smartphone browser (I'm an Android guy myself) and I am approaching breweries directly, requesting their slate of beers they plan to pour, in the hopes that the application will have solid beer info in advance of the Thursday night session. If not, it is going to be a long Thursday night and Friday morning as I manually enter everything from the printed GABF program and guess at styles!! :) I am also working on a siplist functionality so that users can identify, in advance, what beers they want to try, regardless of rating. I managed to pull off buying tickets for both Thursday night and Saturday afternoon this year but I still don't expect to make it past about 70 total beers sampled so I am sincerely hoping that other fans of big red ales (and any other style, for that matter!) will be up for giving the app a try! Take care, Devon www.bigfriendlyguide.com