Vermont Brewery Challenge

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Just spent a weekend tackling part of the tour. This app needs to be updated, as mentioned by doub1ejack’s review. At one of the biggest breweries, Long Trail, geo-location didn’t work. After three days, there has still been no response from the VBA regarding my submitted selfie (for proof-of-visit) or my notifications of out-of-date brewery listings. Last app update was 3 months ago! Come on, VBA- get on this and keep your data current! On the plus side, WHEN the app worked for electronic passport stamps, it was a simple enough process.

Initially we were unable to make the app work correctly at all for passport stamps, so gave it 3 stars, but through trial and error on our own, we found that if we logged into the app only once we reached a brewery we could get the geo position system to log us at the right location to make the app respond. Then we had to be sure to log out and then only log in again when were reached the next brewery. Without this workaround, the passport subsystem just hangs (keeps showing filling glass) - probably because it has locked in a coordinate from some other location. Note that this approach is never going to work at locations where cell phone service is nonexistent (there are a few places in VT with this issue).

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There are a few breweries on the App that are within Geo-location of each other where a stamp will work for both. The app will not let you stamp multiple breweries within 30 minutes of each other. I understand “drinking craft beers responsibly” as the app suggest’s, but at times you forget to stamp as you walk in/out of one place and you are so close you do it next store and the app doesn’t allow you. A possible feature to amend in the future.

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The app works ok for a passport, with two qualifiers: 1) the app often isn't able to activate the GPS needed to stamp a location ("you had one job!"). The workaround is to switch to Google maps, wait until it displays your current location, then open this app and try again. 2) the app intro/walkthrough actually confuses the process for simply stamping the passport. Finish the intro, close the app, reopen it, and then it's pretty intuitive. The other features either don't work well (good luck making a brew tour if it extends beyond the predefined areas), or just do a poor job of duplicating the On Tap app (the "Beers" list in this app is often out of date). This lame app is probably an example of design-by-committee, paired with a lack of user testing. If they drop 75% of the features and improve the remaining ones, it could be a great experience though. The core passport idea is really compelling.

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Passport stamps don’t work. Just a marketing tool.