The boom of Nova Scotian craft beer has blessed the province’s ale drinkers with over 40 breweries to choose from. And, with its new app, ImmediaC, a web development company in Halifax, will help consumers find exactly where they can enjoy their favourite local brew.
The app is called Craft on T’app. The company is currently doing a soft launch with a few breweries. The app is already available to download online, on Google Play, and approval is pending from the Apple App Store.
The app lets breweries and restaurants show customers what is and isn’t on tap that day so users are shown exactly where they can drink a certain beer.
"I personally have been a big fan of craft beer and what’s been going on in this town and the province for the last five years,” said John Leahy, the Founder and CEO of ImmediaC.
He had the idea for the app after meeting brewers from across the province.
“To meet these guys was amazing because they’re all characters with a passion about some aspect of brewing.”
The app itself took six months to build, but the real work got done in the last five weeks of its development.
ImmediaC coded the basic, back-end functions of the app and with the help of four interns from the Nova Scotia Community College, the app was completed and launched.
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The students, who are doing the web development program, built Craft on T’app as a part of their five-week work term with NSCC. Leahy said they will receive an honorarium for their work and 100 per cent of the app's revenue for the first 90 days.
“This is an exceptional landmark for us as well as to have on a resume, because we’re only first year interns,” said Isaac Lohnes, one of the NSCC interns. A different intern, who is finishing his second year, has already been hired by ImmediaC after he graduates.
“To say that this company has helped us with the opportunity to make a working app is really great for us too,” said Lohnes.
Leahy said apps are incredibly beneficial for small to medium sized companies.
“Everyone has a website, but if you have an app - that’s cool. But one of the challenges is apps are very expensive.” said Leahy. “Typically an app costs $150,000 (to build) depending on what you’re doing.”
To build an app, developers have to source from old libraries of data that have been growing for, in some cases, decades. Leahy said this is part of why apps are so complex and expensive so he streamlined the process and developed an “app assembly line”.
“It’s not a template but it allows us to build apps more cost effectively. And over the past two years we’ve built four or five apps using that methodology.”
The NSCC students proved the assembly line process works because after learning the methodology and building Craft on T’app, they cranked out another app, this one for Nova Scotian wine.
