Vermont Brewery Challenge 17+

Fun but false advertising

Lets be real, I downloaded the app and “completed” the trail w/ 50 breweries for the beers and spending time with my fiancé & friends. But when I FINALLY reached the 50 breweries I was really looking forward to getting the free merch as the “reward”. I was especially stoked about the vba trucker hat. I claimed my 50/50 rewards and got a T shirt and 1 sticker - no trucker hat, no bottle opener, no koozies, definitely no mention of the early access to the VBA fest. I got the reward for 20/50. I saw the notice stating rewards wouldn't be fulfilled til after the pandemic...so, who knows, maybe the rest will show up someday. Doubtful. Also too bad I've since moved...

And dont bother trying to email them, you wont get a response. Even before the pandemic my fiancé had an issue, tried contacting them, and got no response at all.

App is cool and facilitates having a great time while enjoying some great breweries and beers along the way. The experience is 5/5 stars, everything else is really lacking.

Bugs, Flaws, and Errors

Just spent a weekend tackling part of the tour. This app needs to be updated, as mentioned by doub1ejack’s review. At one of the biggest breweries, Long Trail, geo-location didn’t work. After three days, there has still been no response from the VBA regarding my submitted selfie (for proof-of-visit) or my notifications of out-of-date brewery listings. Last app update was 3 months ago! Come on, VBA- get on this and keep your data current! On the plus side, WHEN the app worked for electronic passport stamps, it was a simple enough process.

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much for your feedback. Things such as brewery listings and manual stamp approvals are managed by the association and do not require app updates. I have passed this along to the appropriate department for review, however, I wanted to make sure that you did receive your stamp for Long Trail. Please reach out if you have not - we'd be happy to help!

Not working as advertised-Revised

Initially we were unable to make the app work correctly at all for passport stamps, so gave it 3 stars, but through trial and error on our own, we found that if we logged into the app only once we reached a brewery we could get the geo position system to log us at the right location to make the app respond. Then we had to be sure to log out and then only log in again when were reached the next brewery. Without this workaround, the passport subsystem just hangs (keeps showing filling glass) - probably because it has locked in a coordinate from some other location. Note that this approach is never going to work at locations where cell phone service is nonexistent (there are a few places in VT with this issue).