While the internet has completely transformed the way craft beer lovers have discovered beer, there are still pockets of cool stuff that everyone may not know about. I present to you a few tools that will only help you on your quest for finding the best craft beer possible.

Fresh Beer Only

Hop heads know, sometimes having the freshest beer possible is the only way to drink craft beer. Unfortunately, not every brewery puts an easy to read date on every bottle. The website Fresh Beer Only details not only date code information for over 400 American breweries, but also breweries from around the globe.

Keep this bookmark in your smart phone for instant access when you’re buying that six-pack.

US Beer Distribution Spreadsheet

Do a lot of traveling? How about a lot of trading? Wouldn’t you like an easy resource to see what beers are available where? Well, now you have it with the US Beer Distribution Spreadsheet. This user editable spreadsheet allows you to see which beers are distributed across the United States. Very handy if you’re trying to trade some beer with a friend in another state.

Twitter

If you’re still living with the idea of Twitter being a haven for the attention-seekers looking to blather on about the minute details of their lives, well, you’re not entirely wrong. But, it can also be a fantastic tool to learn about beer news, information, and some fantastic discussion as well.

For instance, if you followed the Wine and Cheese Place (@TWCPBeer) or STL Hops (@stlhops) on Twitter today, you would have seen that Firestone Walker Parabola and Nebraska Brewing Company Black Betty have made it into the St. Louis market.

Hell, you don’t even have to tweet anything. Just follow a bunch of very specific beer accounts and get some great info. It’s also worth noting that every brewery that’s worth anything has a Twitter account now. Here are a couple of other great accounts as well:

BeerNews.org (@beerpulse)

Evan Benn (@EvanBenn)

Jonathan Surratt (@beerinator)

Ray Daniels (@Cicerone_org)

Lee Williams (@Hoptopia)

Not to be excluded are the original beer sources, BeerAdvocate and Rate Beer. They always provide plenty of great reviews and a plethora of discussion. Do you have a site you really like? Make sure to add it to the comments below.