I have been working on Had That Beer, www.hadthatbeer.com/signup?c=earlyaccess to check it out, for about 8 months now. I am the sole developer, designer, admin etc. I know the pain of all the manual data entry that has to be done for beers and by the time you are done a new batch of something else has been brewed and you are out of date. I would go through select geographic areas, get as many beers in as you can and start promoting it in that area. Best way to get feedback is to get users, and some of those users might not mind helping add a few brews.
I think your project is definitely worth pursuing. If you don't think so then maybe we could team up.