Beer Guides
My brother Fred started developing a beer enthusiast website in early 2002 with the franconia discussion board and shortly there after The Online Beer Guide to Bamberg (https://www.bambergbeerguide.com). His enthusiasm took him to other beer hotspots and his website expanded into London, Prague, Antwerp, Berlin and many others. Many of these cities had a local friend who would keep them up to date. In around 2015 he created the Beer Guide apps that reflected the content on the websites but without the need to be online and roaming.
Eventually, 14 apps and sites were developed and 4 others were under way. However, on May 31, 2023 all that changed with his sudden illness and death. I took over keeping the apps up and the bills paid but honestly it was a labor of love and respect more than a passion. Sometime last year Fred’s developer account expired and the apps disappeared from the app store. After some discussions with Jezza I realized that I needed to commit to the apps and website or let them expire.
I decided to keep them going.
It hasn't been a simple or quick path; Google’s new policies required me to set up a formal business to be able to manage the release schedule. However, in August 2025 the android apps were re-released on the Google Play Store. I also released the London app on the Apple App Store. Since I’m not a Swift or Xcode developer, I’ve been porting the apps to a framework that uses a single codebase for both platforms. As of this month, six apps are back on both stores, and I plan to release the rest as I validate the city data.
Next, I’ll be modernizing and consolidating the websites. Since some of the old URLs expired during the transition, a single, consolidated site makes the most sense. I don’t have a firm date yet, but I’m aiming for the end of summer 2026.
A little about me: I live in Orlando, Florida, and try to get to Europe once a year. I’ve been a software engineer for over 40 years, specializing in systems integration. I’m comfortable with Android, but iOS is a new frontier for me!
I truly appreciate everyone’s support and patience as I find my way through this.
Kind regards,
Robert Waltman
Beer Guide Apps, LLC