Renowned restaurateur Stefano de Pieri in conjunction with MediaStorm Advertising has created an application to help beer enthusiasts gain a greater appreciation for Australian and locally produced beers.

Mr de Pieri said it was called Beer Buddy and at a cost of $2.49 provided detailed descriptions of a variety of beers and the whereabouts of the nearest brewery.

“Say you want to go to Redhill, you type it in and it will tell you all the breweries and stockists nearby,” he said.

“We will update it every few months so it will be ever expanding and will allow people to find out what is new.”

Mr de Pieri said he initially created the application to educate people on the different varieties of beer available.

“If you do a poll and ask people what beer they like, they say they like what they like,” he said.

“We did this to tell them why they like what they do.”

Purchasers of the application either through an iPhone or iPad, can also watch detailed descriptions of beer varieties and videos describing what is involved in the making of a quality beer.

Mr de Pieri said thousands of dollars had been invested in the application which he hoped would benefit the area as well as micro-breweries across Australia.

“We wanted to do it as a service to all micro-breweries in Australia, to provide a united front,” he said.

“We also hope it helps Mildura indirectly because it shows lots of Mildura’s products.”

Mr de Pieri said the unusual application could eventually go global.

“This app has the potential to be a standard in New Zealand and America,” he said.

“The database will become unbelievably big, it just depends on how far we take it.”

Mr de Pieri said so far the feedback had been incredibly positive.

“Were getting very good feedback,” he said.

“It looks very promising.”

This story appeared in Thursday's Sunraysia Daily 3/2/2011.