The first inception of the Dogfish brew finder relied on the consumers to feed us the information about where they found Dogfish brews. At the time, we could not obtain data directly from the distributors. Using the Location module, registered users could come to the site and put in a place where they bought Dogfish, restaurants, beer stores, bars, venues. The data was then mapped onto a Google map, where you could search by state, country, or location type.

Adding locations was one of the most popular features of the site. In just over a year, we collected nearly 10,000 user submitted locations in the United States, Canada, UK, and Europe. Fans of Dogfish could let other fans know exactly where they were finding their favorite brews.

This year, Dogfish partnered with Vermont Information Processing systems and their brew distributors to hook into a centralized database that collected information about where brews were being distributed to. Each time a distributor ships product out to retailers, data about the retail location and products are saved to the VIP system. This provides an accurate representation of where Dogfish is being shipped to and what locations are carrying, and its updated often.

In a couple of days, we recoded the product finder to take advantage of the service VIP's system could offer. Users can now go to dogfish.com, enter their zip code and quickly be given locations near them. They can also look for a specific brews and filter by different retail types. There are now three times as many locations total (and growing) than before, and the data is kept up to date, as opposed to being entered and forgotten about.

There are still some tweaks and additions to be made but overall response has been positive and exciting. Equal excitement is mounting for the premiere of the new Dogfish Head Craft Brewery show on Discovery, "Brewmasters" which airs Sunday, November 21st at 10PM. We have some special things lined up for that too.

Check out the new and improved product finder and pick up some Dogfish brews right now!