45

Not sure if this is on topic! Could be interesting though. Feel free to flag/VTC if you disagree.

I'm looking to build an app that has to do with beer. It occurred to me that ratings/information/any beer-related API could be useful. Both BeerAdvocate and RateBeer seem to have no officially available API.

Are there any beer-related sites or resources with an open API?

2
  • 1
    I don't know if it's on topic either, but it's a very interesting question, for sure.
    – Xander
    Mar 16, 2014 at 22:28
  • 1
    It would be on topic on opendata.SE and web APIs are on topic on softwarerecs.SE - but they seem to dislike APIs for accessing data due to some belief that it's sneaky to ask about data in a place for asking about software. Mar 30, 2014 at 3:23

3 Answers 3

41

There are a number of beer-related APIs available. RateBeer does have a JSON API, but it's apparently currently unavailable and I don't know if they intend on making it available again or not.

Here are several that I've found:

  1. Brewery DB has an API that can return JSON, XML, or PHP, and from their API documentation, it appear that they have quite a bit of info available about both breweries and beers.

  2. Open Beer Database is a beer API, but it appears that it's still under development and may be unstable, so YMMV.

  3. The Beer Spot offers an API that includes some social aspects, such as what people are drinking, and ratings, but not as much in the way of rich data about the beers themselves.

  4. Untappd is another social/beer app that offers an API, but you need an account on the site to view the documentation and they seem to be a bit more strict in that they have to actually review and approve your app idea before they'll give you an API key.

  5. Open Food Facts while not limited to beers, has 1500 of them and an API with barcodes, nutrition, ingredients… It's fully opendata and collaborative, meaning you can upload new beers from their mobile apps.

There are others, but those are a few of the most common and/or promising from what I've seen.

2
  • How difficult could be get a key api for untappd?
    – alexpfx
    Dec 7, 2017 at 15:10
  • @alexpfx I have no idea, as I've never tried. They outline the process here: untappd.com/api/register but they aren't very specific beyond that you must have a real app or app idea in order to qualify.
    – Xander
    Dec 7, 2017 at 15:13
8

I started an open beer n brewery data project, that is, beer.db - all data is public domain, that is, license-free, no rights reserved). You can also run your own HTTP JSON API service e.g GET /beer/brooklynlager or GET /brewery/guiness etc. Adding new beers and breweries works like a wiki - that is, anyone can update the plain text documents (datasets) in your browser or on your local machine with your text editor of choice and than upload the changes back to the repo (e.g. git push) Cheers. Prost.

5
  • Hello, how did you build this database? Do you think you can add EAN codes? Sep 13, 2016 at 14:06
  • Hello, you're welcome to add EAN codes - all the code (tooling), database schema and datasets is open and public domain. For the database tables / schema, see schema.rb -- as an alternative you can also use "plain" SQL of course. Sep 14, 2016 at 20:12
  • I mean how did you feed it. Is it only by hand with people like you and me, or did you aggregate several open/free databases out there to build your own? Sep 15, 2016 at 8:05
  • Hello, for now it's "by hand" e.g. it works like a wiki. There's no open / free beer database as far as I know (other than beer.db ;-). Cheers. Prost. PS: For a definition of open, see opendefinition.org Sep 15, 2016 at 13:20
  • 1
    OK thanks a lot for your replies. Prost! Sep 17, 2016 at 6:57
7

I would like to add the Beer Mapping API as well. I really don't know much about any of this but when I read the question I thought it was such a cool concept! Definitely worth looking around a litle bit.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.