I seem to recall that our student pub charged about £2 per pint. And minimum wage around that time was £4 per hour. So a drink was 30 minutes' wages.

Today the minimum wage is about £12 and that pint cost me £6. So, again, about half an hour.

But the human memory is fickle! Let's get some actual historical data.

The UK's Office for National Statistics maintains a dataset of historic draught lager prices.

Well, my memory wasn't too hazy! About £2 when I was at uni. The national average price now is about a fiver - so the London premium wasn't too outrageous.

But how does that compare to wages? The history of the minimum wage is complicated - with several different bands being introduced. It ends up looking something like this:

So I grabbed the most recent data and plotted the ratio between the cost of draught lager and minimum wage:

Ah! It turns out that the cost of beer as a ratio to minimum wage is pretty consistent - somewhere between 27 to 40 minutes. Right now, draught lager is cheaper in terms of minimum wage than it has ever been!

Obviously, averages hide all sorts of sins. I'm sure your favourite brand of premium Bohemian pilsner has dramatically risen in price. And minimum wage doesn't necessarily mean disposable income. And you now have a student loan repayment rather than cash being dropped into your account. And the music they play in pubs is crap these days. And you back hurts ever since you tried to match your younger team members pint for pint and slipped in a puddle of your own sick.

Remember, nostalgia is actively dangerous to your mental health.

has anyone else noticed that food tasted better in the past? it was mushy and easy to eat. and the spoon would come at you like an airplane

— leon (@leyawn.bsky.social) 2025-12-05T21:38:21.731Z

After checking in, the app automatically posts to Twitter. But who wants to prop up Alan's failing empire? Not me! So here's some quick code to liberate your data and post it elsewhere.

There are two ways - APIs and Screen Scraping.

API

First up, a big disclaimer. Untappd had an API - but aren't accepting new users:

Thank you for your interest in Untappd’s API. At this time, we are no longer accepting new applications for API access as we work to improve our review and support processes. We do not have a planned date to begin accepting new applications, so please check back soon.

If you already have an API key (and I do) you can call your own data. This code saves the ID of the most recent checkin to a file. Each time it runs, it checks in the ID in the file is the same as what's returned by the API. If they are different, the post is published and the new ID is saved.

This is rough and ready code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
from mastodon import Mastodon
import json
import requests
import config

#  Set up access
mastodon = Mastodon( api_base_url=config.instance, access_token=config.write_access_token )

#   Untappd API - grab the most recent checkin
untappd_api_url = 'https://api.untappd.com/v4/user/checkins/edent?limit=1&client_id=' + config.untappd_client_id + '&client_secret='+ config.untappd_client_secret

r = requests.get(untappd_api_url)

untappd_data = r.json()

#   Latest checkin object
checkin = untappd_data["response"]["checkins"]["items"][0]
untappd_id = checkin["checkin_id"]

#   Was this ID the last one we saw?
check_file = open("untappd_last", "r")
last_id = int( check_file.read() )
print("Found " + str(last_id) )
check_file.close()

if (last_id != untappd_id ) :
    print("Found new checkin")
    check_file = open("untappd_last", "w")
    check_file.write( str(untappd_id) )
    check_file.close()
    #   Start creating the message
    message = ""

    if "checkin_comment" in checkin :
        message += checkin["checkin_comment"]

    if "beer" in checkin :
        message += "\nDrinking: " + checkin["beer"]["beer_name"]

    if "brewery" in checkin :
        message += "\nBy: "       + checkin["brewery"]["brewery_name"]

    if "venue" in checkin :
        if "venue_name" in checkin["venue"] :
            message += "\nAt: "       + checkin["venue"]["venue_name"]
    #   Scores etc
    untappd_checkin_url = "https://untappd.com/user/edent/checkin/" + str(untappd_id)
    untappd_rating      = checkin["rating_score"]
    untappd_score       = "🍺" * int(untappd_rating)

    message += "\n" +  untappd_score + "\n" + untappd_checkin_url + "\n" + "#untappd"
    print( message )
    #   Post to Mastodon. Use idempotency just in case something went wrong
    mastodon.status_post(status = message, idempotency_key = str(untappd_id))
else :
    print("No new checkin")

This doesn't do media or badges, but it's good enough to start with.

Screen Scraping

The Untappd HTML is pretty uniform, so using something like Beautiful Soup is possible.

Here's some code to get you started

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests

#   Set the URL and headers
url = "https://untappd.com/user/edent"
headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/109.0'}

#   Get the HTML
response = requests.get(url)
page_html = response.text

#   Parse the HTML into soup
soup = BeautifulSoup(page_html, 'html.parser')

#   Grab the data from the first checkin

untappd_id = int( soup.find("div", class_="item")["data-checkin-id"] )

comment = soup.find("p", class_="comment-text").text

#   Steal the beer from the icon's alt text
beer = soup.find("a", class_="label").find("img")["alt"]

#   Rating is a data element
rating = soup.find("div", class_="caps")["data-rating"]

#   Was this ID the last one we saw?
check_file = open("untappd_last", "r")
last_id = int( check_file.read() )
check_file.close()

if (last_id != untappd_id ) :
    check_file = open("untappd_last", "w")
    check_file.write( str(untappd_id) )
    check_file.close()
    message = .....

And from there you should have enough to start posting your checkins everywhere. Stick that code in a crontab and have it run periodically.

Cheers!

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Is there any service which will let me "check in" to a beer? Because this Chocolate Tom I'm drinking is amazing.

---

The answers came in swiftly - Untappd was the app to use. So, a few minutes later:

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

I just earned the 'Newbie' badge on @untappd! http://untp.it/p3POA0

---

In the last decade, how much beer and cider have I drunk?

I've written before about how to extract your data from Untappd using their API.

(A few notes. I don't check in to every drink - I only tend to do so if it's a new beer. Some of these are only tasters of a beer - not a full pint. This is mostly an exercise in playing with R. Visit DrinkAware if you'd like to help manage your alcohol consumption.)

Quick Stats

• 985 check ins.
• 801 unique drinks
• 3.68 average rating
• 4.93 average ABV

Graphs

Is there a correlation between how strong a drink is, and how much I like it?

library(jsonlite)
beer_data <- read_json("untappd_data.json", simplifyVector = TRUE)

abv <- beer_data$beer$beer_abv
scr <- beer_data$rating_score

plot(abv, scr, main="ABV vs Score", xlab="ABV", ylab="Score")
abline(lm(scr~abv), col="red") # regression line (y~x)

Hmmm... There's some week positive correlation there. But it's a bit muddled. Let's turn that into a hexmap:

library(hexbin)
bin<-hexbin(abv, scr, xbins=10, xlab="ABV", ylab="Score")
plot(bin, main="Hexagonal Binning")

Aha! A bit easier to see. Most of the beers I drink are in the 4-5% ABV. And there is some correlation. But, mostly, I just like beer and cider. Hmmm... Which do I prefer?

Let's take a look at Cider first:

library(data.table)
beer_data <- read_json("untappd_data.json", simplifyVector = TRUE)
cider <- beer_data[grepl("Cider", beer_data$beer$beer_name), ]
cabv <- cider$beer$beer_abv
cscr <- cider$rating_score

How much do I like Cider vs Beer? Just beer (OK, also includes Mead and a few other not Ciders)

justbeer <- beer_data[!grepl("Cider", beer_data$beer$beer_name), ]
boxplot(cscr, ylab="Score", main="Cider Scores", ylim=c(0,5))

I like Cider a bit more than beer. Yup!

Let's plot that data on a map! It's a bit more complicated because the JSON is nested.

library(jsonlite)
beer_data <- read_json("untappd_data.json", simplifyVector = TRUE, flatten = TRUE)

venues_list <- beer_data$venue
venues <- as.data.frame(do.call(rbind, venues_list))
locations_list <- venues$location
locations <- as.data.frame(do.call(rbind, locations_list))
locations <-subset(locations, venue_state!="Everywhere")

Display them on an interactive map:

library(sf)
library(mapview)
locations_sf <- st_as_sf(locations, coords = c("lng", "lat"), crs = 4326)
mapview(locations_sf)

Let's zoom in on London:

Yup! Looks about right.

Well, that was a fun afternoon of noodling with R. If you'd like to play with the data, you can download a decade of my Untappd data in JSON format

This is the Pinter from the Greater Good Fresh Brewing Company. It promises to introduce you to the wonderful world of beer and cider brewing. It is only mildly annoying to use.

First up, cost. £75. That's a chunk of change - but it comes with two different brews, each good for 10 pints. That works out at £3.75 per pint - which isn't too shabby. Subsequent kits are £13 each, which is £1.30 per pint. Or you can subscribe to a monthly pack for £12 each.

Each pack comes with a large plastic bottle of pre-mixed beer concentrate. You also get a vial of sterilising crystals for cleaning the unit before brewing, and a small pack of yeast.

The kit comes beautifully packaged. Despite being a somewhat industrial bit of kit, they know that it has to fit in to a home.

It's even available in a choice of colour to match your décor. Nice. The unit itself mostly feels pretty sturdy. There are a few scribbles of leftover plastic which you might want to gently remove. My unit came with a few scuffs on the plastic.

Some of the instructions are printed directly onto the unit - which is helpful - but the print quality isn't great, and looks like it will wear off with a bit of washing.

Others are on temporary stickers. I'm not really sure why. They're useful pointers and probably ought to be permanently attached.

The stickers are easy to peel off - which rather raises the question of why they're there.

All the parts are fairly stiff when trying to remove them, so it is worth following the instructional videos before you make anything. That'll get you used to how to manipulate everything.

A couple of things come to light when you do a practice run. The handle is quite a ridiculously tight fit. It is impossible to use it without scraped knuckles. Similarly, some of plastic feels a little fragile - don't apply too much force.

The Process

The first run is incredibly frustrating. I spent an evening wrestling with the kit trying to assemble it before I found a YouTube tutorial and found out the supplied instructions were wrong!

In order to fit the brewing dock, you must invert the Pinter. I found it impossible to screw the dock on to the Pinter - I ended up cutting my knuckles and chipping the fragile plastic.

Place the dock on a flat surface, lift up the Pinter, align it, and twist. Very annoying.

To their credit, the supplier did ship me out a replacement part - and a free brew - to apologise.

Once that's done it's a pretty passive process. Leave it somewhere stable for a week. Then remove a part to clean out the used up yeast.

Ew!

Then stick it in your fridge for a couple of days.

The Taste Test

I started with the "Lockwood Pilsner". It came out extremely fizzy and thickly yellow - with a fair amount of sediment at the bottom.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Replying to @edentWell, it is fizzy and the right sort of colour... pic.x.com/O1frI8cxM8

---

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Replying to @edentFirst pints are *very* thick, almost opaque, with a fair bit of sediment.

But it tastes… like a reasonable lager.

Light, fizzy, no obvious aftertaste. pic.x.com/TiPAsS6HQt

---

And it tasted... fine. A clear, crisp taste. No overpowering flavours or surprises. If you had it at a beer festival, you would score it as a perfectly average beer. I don't know how alcoholic it was - there's no measurement device included with the kit. But a couple of pints didn't leave me noticeably impaired.

You can view other people's review of the beer quality on Untappd.

After a few more days in the fridge, the clarity had improved. The taste become much more interesting and "crafty".

Can I make other beers in it?

Their FAQ is pretty clear that they only support their own proprietary blend of liquids and yeasts. But this isn't some horrific espresso machine which only works with the manufacturer's pods. It's a big ol' barrel and valve - no mechanical or moving parts. So it will probably work.

Verdict

It is hard for me to recommend this. It is very much a prototype product and, as a beta test, it is OK. It is fiddly to use, with confusing instructions. The plastic parts feel very fragile at times. A bunch of the little rubber feet have already fallen off. It would be helpful to have a transparent window on the barrel to see how much is left in there.

In order to get all the beer out, you need to tip up the barrel - I can't help wondering why it isn't designed with a built-in slope.

At this sort of price, I expected something a little more high tech. Perhaps a little Arduino to display the alcohol level, or to show the ideal temperature.

It can be quite messy to use. So be prepared for a fair bit of washing and scrubbing.

The beer is pretty good, and there's a certain sense of accomplishment from (mostly) brewing it yourself. I say "mostly" because all you're doing is mixing pre-made ingredients and waiting. There aren't any choices or decisions to make. With all that said, it works. Mixing yeast with a sugary solution and water produces fizzy alcohol.

But you end up with an entire shelf of your fridge taken up for as long as it takes you to get through 10 pints of beer. And that's a bit of a pain unless you have a spare fridge. I ended up bottling as much of it as I could.

And, that's the main problem. You end up with the barrel dominating your fridge for around a week - a few days for conditioning and a few days for drinking. Depending on your lifestyle, that's a big commitment.

If you value small batch, interesting beer - I recommend you spend the money at your local brewery and get a selection of bottles. Store them in your cupboard and chill them whenever you want.

I'm going to try a couple of the other brews - cider is up next - but I think this might be one of those kitchen gadgets which comes out once or twice per year.

Update for 2022

I got rid of the Pinter. Too much of a faff to use, poor quality materials, and a decidedly average drink from it. Review dropped to 2 stars.

Most countries in the world place legal limits on alcohol production at home. There are, usually, several good reasons for this:

• Improperly brewed alcohol can cause severe health problems - including death.
• Poorly set up stills can - and do - explode.
• Unlicensed sellers of alcohol generally don't pay tax.

I'm sure you can think of a few more reasons to add to the list.

In the UK - where I live - brewing wine and beer for personal consumption only is allowed. Distilling alcohol requires a licence. Again, most jurisdictions have similar attitudes to home brewing.

Here's my big question - should CryptoMining be treated in the same way as the manufacture of alcohol?

(I'm in no position to enact such a global law. This is a thought experiment.)

The current state of proof-of-work mining is:

• Environmentally destructive.
• Opens users up to fraud.
• Reduces tax income to the state.

I'm sure you can think of a few more reasons to add to the list.

Could / Should / Would countries ban domestic cryptocurrency generation?

We all thought the coming war on general-purpose computing was going to be driven by DRM. But what if it is driven by Central Banks eager to retain control of currencies?

Even if such a law was enacted - could it be policed? Given that the computer equipment needed to mine currency is functionally identical to regular computer equipment, how do you stop people buying it?

Recently, the GPU manufacturer NVidia restricted the hashing power of its domestic graphics cards to stop them being used by miners. (Of course, this limit was quickly bypassed.)

Would we end up in a situation where you may be allowed to mine a trivial amount of currency for "personal consumption" but would be forbidden from generating too much? How could that be measured, let alone enforced?

Again, to be clear, I'm not in favour of such a restriction and have no ability to write laws about it. But I think such a restriction is likely to be proposed before too long.

An effective way to stop this happening would be to move away from speculative mining which requires large amounts of energy. If crypto can't get efficient - it'll find itself on the wrong side of history.

Recently, I decided to see if I could self-host my beer check-ins. The first step - extracting my own data from Untappd.

Pay To Play

If you become an Untappd Supporter for US$5 per month, you can extract your data in CSV or JSON. I feel like I ought to be able to GDPR that and get it for free but, hey, a couple of quid doesn't seem like a bad way to support an app.

Here's a brief extract:

beer_name,brewery_name,beer_type,beer_abv,beer_ibu,comment,venue_name,venue_city,venue_state,venue_country,venue_lat,venue_lng,rating_score,created_at,checkin_url,beer_url,brewery_url,brewery_country,brewery_city,brewery_state,flavor_profiles,purchase_venue,serving_type,checkin_id,bid,brewery_id,photo_url
"Devon Mist (Cloudy Sparkling Cider)","Sandford Orchards","Cider - Other",4.5,0,"Inoffensive. Found in Aldi.",,,,,,,2.5,"2018-09-29 18:14:59",https://untappd.com/c/657661791,https://untappd.com/beer/163090,https://untappd.com/brewery/14080,England,Crediton,Devon,,,Bottle,657661791,163090,14080,https://untappd.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/2018_09_29/46269e6ba9db8ebc6c66efeddc28edd9_c_657661791_raw.jpeg
"Älska Passion Fruit Apple Cider","Swedish Cider Company ","Cider - Other Fruit",4,0,"Basically an alcopop. Bit sticky.",,,,,,,2,"2018-10-01 19:33:33",https://untappd.com/c/658763031,https://untappd.com/beer/2023147,https://untappd.com/brewery/107942,Sweden,Karlstad,,,,Bottle,658763031,2023147,107942,https://untappd.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/2018_10_01/1a193187913f2429c325c44fe3537b35_c_658763031_raw.jpeg
"War Horse","White Horse Brewery","Extra Special / Strong Bitter",4.9,0,"Gorgeous and light. Summery delicious.","Oxford Playhouse",Oxford,Oxfordshire,"United Kingdom",51.755,-1.26088,4,"2018-10-05 16:51:58",https://untappd.com/c/659797322,https://untappd.com/beer/240251,https://untappd.com/brewery/2678,England,Stanford-in-the-Vale,Oxfordshire,,,,659797322,240251,2678,

Fun fact, the data export didn't originally give a photo URL. So I asked nicely and now it is included for everyone!

But that's not all the data they hold about the check-in.

API

Untappd has a brilliant API which returns much more detail than the CSV export. And you don't even have to pay to use it.

Take a look at this check-in:

"checkin_id": 658763031,
"created_at": "Mon, 01 Oct 2018 18:33:33 +0000",
"checkin_comment": "Basically an alcopop. Bit sticky.",
"rating_score": 2,
"user": {
   "uid": 46296,
   "user_name": "edent",
   "first_name": "Terence",
   "last_name": "E.",
   "location": "UK",
   "is_supporter": 1,
   "url": "https:\/\/shkspr.mobi\/blog",
   "bio": "Long haired geek.",
   "relationship": null,
   "user_avatar": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/profile\/5d928465e29fec4375a2990ca2767852_thumb.jpg",
   "is_private": 0,
   "contact": {
      "twitter": "edent",
      "foursquare": "56367",
      "facebook": "609836217"
   }
},
"beer": {
   "bid": 2023147,
   "beer_name": "Älska Passion Fruit Apple Cider",
   "beer_label": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/site\/assets\/images\/temp\/badge-beer-default.png",
   "beer_style": "Cider - Other Fruit",
   "beer_slug": "swedish-cider-company-alska-passion-fruit-apple-cider",
   "beer_abv": 4,
   "beer_active": 1,
   "has_had": false
},
"brewery": {
   "brewery_id": 107942,
   "brewery_name": "Swedish Cider Company ",
   "brewery_slug": "swedish-cider-company",
   "brewery_page_url": "\/w\/swedish-cider-company\/107942",
   "brewery_type": "Cidery",
   "brewery_label": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/site\/brewery_logos\/brewery-107942_ca21d.jpeg",
   "country_name": "Sweden",
   "contact": {
      "twitter": "",
      "facebook": "",
      "instagram": "",
      "url": "http:\/\/www.alskacider.com"
   },
   "location": {
      "brewery_city": "Karlstad",
      "brewery_state": "",
      "lat": 59.4109,
      "lng": 13.4854
   },
   "brewery_active": 1
},
"venue": [],
"comments": {
   "total_count": 0,
   "count": 0,
   "items": []
},
"toasts": {
   "total_count": 0,
   "count": 0,
   "auth_toast": false,
   "items": []
},
"media": {
   "count": 1,
   "items": [{
      "photo_id": 195061947,
      "photo": {
         "photo_img_sm": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/photo\/2018_10_01\/1a193187913f2429c325c44fe3537b35_c_658763031_200x200.jpeg",
         "photo_img_md": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/photo\/2018_10_01\/1a193187913f2429c325c44fe3537b35_c_658763031_640x640.jpeg",
         "photo_img_lg": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/photo\/2018_10_01\/1a193187913f2429c325c44fe3537b35_c_658763031_1280x1280.jpeg",
         "photo_img_og": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/photo\/2018_10_01\/1a193187913f2429c325c44fe3537b35_c_658763031_raw.jpeg"
      }
   }]
},
"source": {
   "app_name": "Untappd for iPhone - (V2)",
   "app_website": "http:\/\/untpd.it\/iphoneapp"
},
"badges": {
   "retro_status": false,
   "count": 1,
   "items": [{
      "badge_id": 2980,
      "user_badge_id": 401989193,
      "badge_name": "Johnny Appleseed  (Level 34)",
      "badge_description": "Grab a pot and put it on your head because you're a modern day Johnny Appleseed. That's 170 different ciders. Try 5 more to unlock Level 35.",
      "created_at": "Mon, 01 Oct 2018 18:33:33 +0000",
      "badge_image": {
         "sm": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/badges\/bdg_appleseed_sm.jpg",
         "md": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/badges\/bdg_appleseed_md.jpg",
         "lg": "https:\/\/untappd.akamaized.net\/badges\/bdg_appleseed_lg.jpg"
      }
   }]
}

Badges! Beer labels! Locations! Venues! Images! Data!

By default, the API only returns 25 check-ins per request. But it does come with a pagination option:

"pagination": {
   "since_url": "https:\/\/api.untappd.com\/v4\/user\/checkins\/edent?min_id=659797322",
   "next_url": "https:\/\/api.untappd.com\/v4\/user\/checkins\/edent?max_id=602463014",
   "max_id": 602463014
},

Python Power!

Here's a quick script which will download all your beer-data and create a single JSON file to use. You will need to register an API key and generate your own access token.

import json
import requests

username     = "abc"
client_id    = "123"
client_secret= "456"
access_token = "789"

user = requests.get("https://api.untappd.com/v4/user/info/"+username+"?client_id="+client_id+"&client_secret="+client_secret)
user_data = user.json()
total_checkins = user_data["response"]["user"]["stats"]["total_checkins"]

print("Total Checkins = " + str(total_checkins))

checkins = requests.get("https://api.untappd.com/v4/user/checkins/?access_token="+access_token)
checkins_data = checkins.json()
full_data = checkins_data["response"]["checkins"]["items"]

while (len(full_data) < total_checkins):
    max_id   = checkins_data["response"]["pagination"]["max_id"]
    next_url = "https://api.untappd.com/v4/user/checkins/?max_id=" + str(max_id) + "&access_token="+access_token
    print("Downloading " + next_url)
    checkins = requests.get(next_url)
    checkins_data = checkins.json()

    full_data.extend(checkins_data["response"]["checkins"]["items"])

with open("untappd_data.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(full_data, f)

That will save a file with all your data. Happy drinking!

The common theme in those examples is that we are designing for the phone's context, not the user's context.

We rarely say "let's introduce a left-handed option" or "do we need a night reading mode?" or "does the user have time to concentrate on this UI while driving?" The user should be at the heart of our decision making, and her context should feature heavily in our conversations about UI.

A lot of modern "lifestyle" apps are focussed around getting people to bars and clubs - so why aren't designers creating interfaces for the "cognitively impaired?" i.e. Drunk!

I'd encourage you to watch this usability study from Three Sheets Research where they ask a drunk woman to navigate and interact with a moderately complex website.

Hilarious, right? But also accurate. Users have many demands on their time - being distracted by a phone ringing, or an incoming email, or a bright and shiny object has the same effect as being drunk. They return to the user interface with reduced thinking capacity.

My favourite social drinking app is Untappd. It lets me check in to beers and bars to let my friends know what I'm drinking and where I am. It serves as a beer sommelier by aggregating my beer reviews and presenting me with places to go and try new and interesting brews.

The interface, however, doesn't fully respect the change that I go through the more I use the app. It starts off well enough. A clean row of beers to choose from and a search bar.

After a couple of beers, the interface becomes less useful: The white on yellow colour scheme isn't helping things, some of the buttons are too small to hit first time and there seems to be a bunch of text which I just can't be bothered to read. There's a character count - but the font is too small. I'm pretty sure that's a camera icon, and I'm at least 75% certain I remember which shade of blue is Twitter and which is Facebook.

By the end of the night, the interface has morphed into this hot mess:

We know how drunk users act. Interfaces should adapt to the user's context.

If I am inebriated, perhaps those Facebook and Twitter buttons should disappear. Make it easier for me to hit the correct button and harder for me to share my sozzled opinions with my social network.

Fonts need to be much larger and distinct. Emboldened text with a strongly contrasting colour scheme is helpful.

Text is routinely ignored and the tyranny of choice can become insurmountable when tired and emotional.

Separate actions need to be strongly differentiated. Two brown buttons in close proximity makes no sense to someone rat-arsed.

Why is it so easy to make a bad decision when drunk? Oughtn't the interface say "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that" - or at the very least give me a chance to undo my actions?

Interfaces don't need to stay static. Most competent designers can build apps which shift when the screen is rotated from portrait to landscape mode. Apps already have to cope with users setting their own font size and screen contrast - so why not go the whole hog and proactively adapt the interface based on how trollied the user is?

I've previously discussed why I think designers are crazy. And I can already hear some of the precious snowflakes crying out in horror at the butchery I am asking them to perform on their babies.

It's necessary. If you know that your user is going to have difficulty touching small icons, will have unfocussed eyes, and may have several other sensory impairments - it is your duty to adapt that interface!

Here is a radically simplified version of one of the Untappd screens. Yes, it's missing details (which the drunkard won't care about) - no, it's not pretty (I'm sure the beer goggles will make up for that) - but it's easy enough for anyone to use after a few cheeky beers.

Rather than going up to strangers in a coffee shop to ask them to beta test your latest UI, take the plunge and ask the folk propping up your local bar at midday. If they can use it, anyone can.

Here's a hand cut-out-and-keep user story for you to sneak into your next agile session.

Woking falls comfortably in the middle. Ironically, it takes place in a temple to health and fitness - Woking Leisure Centre. What makes Woking Beer Festival so special, though, is the atmosphere. Without a doubt, the star attraction is Len Rawle playing the Wurlitzer Organ. Several hundred Wokingers carousing like demented Vikings is simply magical.

Two things disappointed me during the day. Firstly, drinks were only available in half or full pints. The GBBF had 1/3rd glasses. This was an excellent idea which meant that you could sample more varieties of beers and - if you found one you didn't like - you didn't waste too much of it.

Secondly, while there were more ciders on offer than ever before, the tasting notes were rather sparse. While each beer got a sentence in the show guide, ciders and perrys were relegated to name only.

I AudioBoo'd throughout the day - for your edification and delight, here are the highlights.