About our data sources

This article explains where our venue data comes from, how we process it, how often we refresh it, and how you can help keep it accurate. In short: we stand on the shoulders of open data communities and carefully transform those datasets to power a fast, map‑first experience for beer, wine, and spirits places.

What we use

• OpenStreetMap (OSM) planet extracts for places and geography
• Domain datasets for beverages and producers (e.g., breweries, wineries, distilleries)
• Limited, curated internal references to improve matching and naming consistency

We do not scrape private data, track individuals, or purchase commercial listings. Our emphasis is on open, auditable sources.

Source breakdown

• OpenStreetMap (venues and geography)

  • We rely on community‑maintained points of interest and tags relevant to drinks: breweries, wineries, distilleries, pubs, bars, beer stores, wine shops, and related venue types.
  • OSM data is governed by the ODbL license. Please see the OSM copyright page for details: OpenStreetMap Copyright.

• Beverage domain data

  • We reference open datasets for beverage producers and styles to make naming and filtering more consistent. Examples include brewery and winery lists with basic attributes (name, locality, style categories). Where we use third‑party datasets, we respect their terms and retain attribution.

Processing pipeline (high‑level)

1. Ingest: We import fresh OSM planet extracts into a columnar/analytical store for filtering and transformation.
2. Filter: We select only the nodes/ways/relations carrying relevant tags (e.g., brewery, pub, wine‑bar, distillery, wine‑shop, beer‑store, bar).
3. Normalize: We standardize names, categories, and addresses; we derive display‑friendly fields; we compute geospatial centroids for map rendering.
4. Enrich: When possible, we link venues to producer references (e.g., a brewery venue to a known brewery entity) to improve search and deduplication.
5. Export: We produce compact artifacts optimized for fast client‑side maps and server‑side APIs.

The repository layout reflects this split: the cc.on-tap.data project handles ingestion, filtering, and export; the cc.on-tap web app consumes those exports for the map and directory UI.

Categories and tagging

We map common OSM tags into a small set of app categories for clarity:

• Breweries and taprooms
• Wineries and tasting rooms
• Distilleries
• Pubs and bars
• Beer stores and bottle shops
• Wine shops and wine bars

If you notice a venue mis‑categorized, it’s often due to upstream tags. Updating tags in OSM is the most durable fix and benefits everyone relying on open data.

Update cadence

• We aim for weekly refreshes of OSM‑derived venues. Larger structural changes (schema or category updates) are less frequent.
• Producer reference data is updated as sources release new dumps or as we merge community corrections.

Data quality and corrections

• Ground truth lives in OpenStreetMap. If an address, opening status, or category is wrong, please update it directly in OSM. Your fix will be picked up in the next refresh and will also help many other projects.
• For name disambiguation, duplicates, or obvious mistakes in our exported lists, you can also open an issue in our project repository or contact us. We’ll validate and propagate corrections upstream when appropriate.

Privacy

We do not collect personal data about visitors’ locations beyond what is strictly necessary for basic geolocation features (e.g., “find near me”), and we do not store individualized movement histories. Venue data is public and non‑personal by nature.

Licensing and attribution

• OpenStreetMap data © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under ODbL. See: OpenStreetMap Copyright
• Other datasets remain under their original licenses; we preserve attribution and follow redistribution terms.

If you reuse our compiled exports, please retain source attributions and include links back to the original projects.

Changelog for this article

• 2025‑09‑01: First public version.