Frequently Asked Questions

BREWTANICA™ is the world's first AI-powered beer journal and encyclopedia. Scan any can or bottle to identify the beer, discover the brewery behind it, and find the venues where you can drink it — all while keeping a personal record of everything you've had.

It's built by beer lovers and breweries together, one scan at a time. The fuller story is on the About page.

BREWTANICA™ is in open beta for iOS, and it installs through Apple's free TestFlight app. Install TestFlight from the App Store first, then come back and tap the join link below — in that order. There is no invite code and no waiting list.

If you are reading this inside another app's browser, such as Instagram or LinkedIn, open the page in Safari instead. Embedded browsers cannot hand off to TestFlight.

That is expected, and it catches almost everyone. If you tapped our join link without TestFlight installed, Apple sent you to the App Store to get TestFlight — and that is where the trail ends. Opening TestFlight on its own will show an empty list, because installing TestFlight does not enroll you in anything.

The join link is a round trip: come back to this page and tap it a second time, now that TestFlight exists on your phone. That is the step that adds BREWTANICA™, and TestFlight's empty screen unfortunately never tells you to take it.

You do not need one, and we cannot give you one. BREWTANICA™ uses a public TestFlight link that enrolls you automatically, so there is no code involved at any point.

That screen means you opened the TestFlight app on its own rather than following the invite. Come back to this page and tap the join link instead — it will take you straight in.

Yes. Scanning beers, building your journal, earning badges, and exploring the encyclopedia are all free.

An iPhone to start, and a beer in front of you. Point your camera at the label and BREWTANICA™ takes it from there — no typing, no hoops to jump through first.

Because BREWTANICA™ is about exploration, not consumption. The app is built around real labels and the breweries that make them, so the world can connect with the people behind the beer — not just order another round.

Scanning a physical can or bottle also keeps the encyclopedia honest: every entry traces back to a beer someone actually held.

Point your camera at any can or bottle and BREWTANICA™ reads the label on the spot. Ale Intelligence™ confirms the beer, its style and ABV, and the brewery behind it — usually in seconds, no typing required.

Then you've found something new — add it. The photo you take earns you credit for the discovery, and the beer joins the encyclopedia for everyone who scans it after you.

If a verified brewery later uploads their official image, you keep the discovery credit. (More on that under Breweries & Verification.)

The brewery, always. When you scan a beer in the wild, your photo earns you credit for the discovery. Any verified brewery can then upload the official version they would rather show — and you still keep the credit for finding it.

The community surfaces the beer; the brewery controls its image.

Breweries can claim and verify their brewery in a few steps. Once verified, a brewery can manage its official images, beer details, and venues across BREWTANICA™.

No. Brewery verification is free.

A verified brewery controls its official beer images, can author the facts about its own beers that Ale Intelligence™ draws on, and enters its own venues — the taprooms, brewpubs, and places where its beer pours.

Ale Intelligence™ is what AI means around here — a beer concierge that identifies what you're drinking and answers whatever you want to know. Ask it about the beer, the brewery, or what to try next, and it answers like a friend who has read every label in the world.

It's there so you get the answers you want without scrolling past the things you don't.

There's nothing artificial about Ale Intelligence™. It draws on the information breweries put on their own containers, the venue details breweries enter themselves, and the journal of pours you choose to keep.

Real intelligence, from the people who actually make, pour, and drink the beer.

If you want to scroll, there's an activity page for exactly that — and it's all beers, badges, and breweries. No noise, no algorithm fighting for your attention.

Your BREWTANICA™ is your personal beer journal. Every pour you mark with a rating and a note records to it — a running record of the beers you've had, where you had them, and what you thought.

You can compare yours with other beer lovers' to see what they've found and pick up where they leave off.

Badges are stylized commemorations of your journey — bottle openers for the beers, tap handles for the venues — designed to live in the app and, one day, in your hand. It is gamification with meaning: each badge marks a pour, a place, or a stretch of the journey worth keeping.

By doing what you'd do anyway — scanning beers, rating them, and checking in at venues. Reach a milestone and the badge is earned automatically.

You earn points by scanning beers, rating them, and checking in at venues. Discovering something new earns the most; re-scanning the same beer earns a little less each time, and scanning the same beer in the same spot stops earning — the app rewards exploration, not repetition.

Everyone climbs by doing what they do best. Beer lovers climb by exploring. Breweries climb by being shared and rated. Venues climb by being visited. Every scan, rating, and check-in feeds the global leaderboards.

Right now? A clean shot of dopamine and the social credit of being the one everyone else is chasing. That's the honest answer, and don't pretend it isn't a good one.

It won't stop there. We're working with sponsors to put real prizes behind the top spots — rewards for holding a leaderboard position, in your country, over a stretch of time. So climb now. The view from up there is about to get even better.

The Encyclopedia is BREWTANICA™'s real-time, community-verified record of beer on earth — the beers, the breweries that make them, the styles they belong to, and the venues where they pour.

The Breweries and Venues listings show verified breweries and their venues, so the map fills in as more breweries claim and verify. Beers, by contrast, grow with every scan — including yours.

Scan. Every beer you identify, every rating and note you add, and every new beer you discover makes the encyclopedia more complete. That's the whole idea — it's built by the people who drink the beer.