musing

Beer magazines, circa 1994

BeeR the MagazineInspired (again) by “The 5 Most Boring Topics in all of Beer Journalism” here’s a glimpse at what appeared in three magazines at the end of 1994.

I picked 1994 because BeeR the Magazine was new (and not long for this world) and because many the breweries that claim a lot more ink (or bandwidth) these days than do the founding pioneers weren’t yet in business. Although they are deserving, I didn’t include brewspapers (such at Celebrator, Ale Street News and the Brewing News family) because our archives were destroyed in the Flood of ’06.

All About Beer, BeeR and American Brewer were then the big three of glossy magazines. About the time BeeR died Beer Connoisseur I passed through town (lasting not even as long as BeeR). These days, of course, we have DRAFT, Beer Connoisseur (unrelated to V1.0), Beer Advocate and Beer Magazine, plus Imbibe offering regular beer features. You’ll spot many of these on the top row at Barnes & Noble or Borders, safely out of the reach of children. (American Brewer lives on, by the way. It always targeted the beer trade but in the 1990s also served information-thirsty beer newcomers.)

ALL ABOUT BEER (November)

Features
* Born to Brew – A look inside the brewing dynasties.
* Vietnamese Beers
* Pubcrawling Toronto

Columns
* Michael Jackson’s Journal – Czechs & Balances.
* Fred Eckhardt – Brewspeak: A Beginner’s Guide to Craft Beer.
* Alan Eames – On Groaning Beer and Babies.
* Byron Burch – Stylistically speaking, Oktoberfest.

Departments
These included news, homebrewing, Lucy Saunders on festival foods, collectibles, brewpub visits, book reviews and “Beer Talk.” The beers reviewed: Abita Amber, Labatt Blue, Purgatory Porter (it was spoiled), Redhook ESB, Berghoff Dark, Christoffel Blond, JJ Wainwright’s Select Lager, Red Tail Ale.

BEER (November)
That’s the cover at the top. BeeR was the brainchild of Bill Owens, who also published American Brewer. From the beginning Owens, himself a well known photographer, attracted very talented illustrators and photographers, although the magazine lasted only about a dozen issues.

Table of Contents
* A Question of Taste – A sensory exploration.
* The Art Guys – Using beer stuff to create art.
* The New Art of Ale – Randy Mosher on America’s innovative ales.
* Smuggler’s Brews – Snagging a few pilsners in Iraq.
* Garbage Pail Willie’s Last Great Batch – A story of homebrewed beer in Chicago.
* Plastic, Fantastic Brewpub – Northwestern Brew-Pub & Cafe in Portland, Oregon.
* Biere Au Naturel – Organic beer.
* A Glass of Wendy – Written by Garrison Keillor (yes, that Garrison Keillor).
* Proclaiming & Declaiming – Two Scottish musicians prefer stout.
* Eat Me, I’m on Irish Time – Kelly’s Irish Times in Washington, D.C.
* Das Münich Bierfest ist Goodt – Oktoberfest in Munich.
* Germany’s Other Brewfest – Oktoberfest in Stuttgart.
* Sing a Drinking Song – Beer at music festivals.
* Europe on a Gallon a Day – Tips from Tim Webb.
* A Really Cold One – Beer ice cream recipes.
* Book Reviews
* Michael Jackson – “On Meretricious Myths and the Sweet Taste of Truth.”
* Homebrewing – Charlie Papazian.
* Beer Festivals – Various reviews.

AMERICAN BREWER

Features
* 1994’s Best Tap Handles
* Financing on Tap – Tips for raising capital.
* Reviving Cincinnati’s Brewing Heritage
* Beer Engines in New England
* Interview with Paul Shipman of Redhook. Headline “Dark Clouds Over Paradise.”
* Rogue Ales in Japan
* Star Union – An Illinois brewery reborn.
* The Perennial Hop – In the American Northwest.
* Music Festivals – A different story than in BeeR. Bill Owens sometimes asked writers to rework pieces to suit his two magazines.
* Micro Goes Macro – Gordon Biersch.

Departments
Regular features included a column by Dick Cantwell (who still has a column in AB), a report on festivals, classified ads for brewing equipment, and BeerScopes (as stupid as the name implies).

Brewers and their stainless steel

“A brewery is no place for a Norwegian with a stainless-steel fetish because you can really blow your bank account.”

From Mark Stutrud, founder of Summit Brewing in Minnesota. The Star Tribune article also quotes a 29-year-old grocery warehouse worker who aspires to be a fiction writer. If he’s stretched for cash, he said he’ll buy a cheaper non-malted alcoholic drink, rather than switch from craft beer to the standard stuff. “It’s an acquired taste, and it’s hard to go back.”

Beer for Mother’s Day? An answer

Teri Fahrendorf was way ahead of me.

While I was wondering why more beer marketers don’t pay attention to Mother’s Day, Fahrendorf — a brewster herself and creator of the Pink Boots Society — was sending a message to the small breweries of America via the Brewers Association Forum, calling for action rather than blogger-like pondering.

Grass Roots Mother’s Day Event:

Once in our ancient brewing past, beer was brewed by mothers, in their homes, for their families. Now that rarely happens.

One goal of the Pink Boots Society is to reach out to the fair gender, expose women to great beer, and encourage them to learn about it and enjoy it. We hope to create more female beer drinkers and homebrewers in the process, (which are additional Pink Boots Society goals).

Mothers Day is celebrated around the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe, each May. Let’s invite folks to bring their mom out for a beer that day.

If you own or work for a brewery or brewpub, consider inviting your customers to “Bring Mom Out for a Beer” on May 9, 2010. Offer moms free brewery tours and free or low cost samplers of your beers from 1:00-4:00 pm.

If you own or work for a beer-centric pub, then design your own creative idea to get mothers in your door and tasting great beer on May 9th from 1:00-4:00pm. Feel free to share your great idea on the Pink Boots Society forum and let me know how it went.

We don’t currently have a nifty way for you to register your individual event online, or to publicize it through PBS. Try grass roots tools, like Twitter, Facebook, and anything else you can think of. We’d love for you to email us your success stories, so we can spread the word.

Grass roots and beer pair so nicely.

What about beer for Mother’s Day?

The first of what will be many email solicitations just arrived suggesting a “beer of the month” club membership makes the Father’s Day present.

You know it’s almost time to plant the tomatoes (we can get a late frost in our parts) and brew a wit beer once the “Dads and Grads” promotions begin.

But what about May 9, Mother’s Day? What’s wrong with giving mom a membership in a beer club? Who’s assembling baskets complete with artisan cheese, chocolates and beer?

5April2010: Beer linkorama

Love this lead from the Indianapolis Star: “The rinsed aluminum cans met their destiny on a vibrating gravity slide, where they took a hit of carbon dioxide, got filled with foaming pale ale five at a time, then were sealed with a pop top.”

Sun King in Indianapolis began canning beer last week. Just a few days more than a year after used fermentation tanks were still on their sides and construction workers were putting in drain trenches. That’s when I took the picture at the top. We were there because, here comes the disclaimer, my cousin, Clay, is one of the founders, with the help of my aunt and uncle, Judi and Omar Robinson. So am [insert your favorite obsencity]-ing excited.

  • I already pointed to the long version, but now Martyn Cornell offers the “the executive summary on what we know, what we don’t know, what we can justifiably assume and what we can’t assume about the history of India Pale Ale.” Read it, memorize it, and if anybody ever asks you about the history of IPA, suggests you write a neck label or a description for a beer menu or, heaven forbid a book (yes, Mitch, I’m looking at you) . . . don’t screw it up.
  • Porter’s last hurrah. More history to examine before you type something stupid.
  • Why is it necessary to find a definition of craft beer, and what might that definition be? Yes it feels that we’ve already talked that to death. But this time the questions are asked outside the Brewers Association guidelines because they are delivered with an Italian accent.
  • The Malt Manifesto, intended to help “real ale to appeal to a broader range of people.” Alan McLeod seems to approve, but Pete Brown might be skeptical about the “Guardian’s latest attempt at beer coverage.”
  • Why beer doesn’t matter. Of course it does, or there wouldn’t be 29 comments.
  • The Oregon Economics Blog examines beer often enough I have it filed under “beer” in my reader. Patrick Emerson gets to several key issues in a visit to Upright Brewing, including price. I think he’s wrong that “many” other places wouldn’t support Upright like Portland and Oregon do, but give it a read and think about time as ingredient in beer. And how it adds to the cost of every glass.
  • Sam Adams as the little guy.
  • Nick Matt explains whey the fire at F.X. Matt turned out to be a good thing.
  • It’s not beer (although DUI is mentioned) but we live in the land of “Breaking Bad” — awaiting the episode shot in the bar down the road — so just for fun Better Call Saul.