Scan to podium: how BeerZap runs itself
Every screen below is a real screenshot from a live, disposable demo event — set up, run, and closed out start to finish. No mockups, no staged data.
Here's the whole loop, start to finish
A five-minute setup produces something that runs itself at the festival — including an honest failure state, built in on purpose.
Set up a station
Add a pour stop in under a minute. Tap "Use my current location" and BeerZap grabs your GPS coordinates automatically — no map to fuss with, no pins to drag. That location is what the geofence checks against every time someone tries to scan this station's QR code.
Print the sheet
Every station gets its own printable sheet — one QR code, ready to tape to the table. That's the entire hardware requirement: a piece of paper. No app for vendors to install, no wristbands, no scanners to buy.
An attendee scans
An attendee opens the scan page and points their phone's camera at the sheet. No app download, no account to create first — it works straight from a mobile browser.
If a browser denies or can't reach the camera, the same page drops straight to manual code entry — scanning never dead-ends.
The geofence actually checks
Try to scan from across the room, and BeerZap says so — in plain language, with the actual distance. This isn't a gimmick: it's proof the location check is real. A QR code alone can be photographed and shared; a QR code plus a live GPS check can't be gamed from the couch.
Standing at the table, the same scan takes under two seconds: a satisfying flash, "Captured!", and the station is added to the attendee's collection. This is what "it just works" looks like when the system trusts where you actually are.
The board fills in live
Put this on a TV or projector and it runs itself — standings refresh automatically as attendees capture stations through the night. No organizer manually updating a scoreboard between pours.
Prizes get named, live, on the same screen
When the festival ends, the same screen locks into final standings and names the prize winners — the exact moment that makes people want this at their own event next year. Same URL the whole night; it just changes what it's showing.
Here's what it looks like for you
Shorter, and the point is trust, not features: a brewery keeps its own listing accurate, an organizer stays in the approval loop, and the payoff — how the crowd is actually rating your beer — isn't locked behind a login.
Vendors manage their own listing
Vendors edit their own brewery profile and beer details directly — tagline, bio, photos, descriptions — no waiting on the organizer to type it in for you. Every edit shows its status (draft, submitted, approved, needs changes) so nothing goes live without a review, and nothing gets lost in an email thread either.
Your results are already public
Here's the part vendors actually care about: their beer's live rank and average rating, right on the same public screen the crowd is watching. No separate login, no private dashboard to check obsessively — if people are rating your IPA highly, everyone at the festival sees it in real time, including you.
