All About Beer
| Categories | Food and drink magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Bi-monthly |
| Publisher | Daniel Bradford |
| Total circulation (2012) | 46,000 |
| Year founded | 1979 |
| Company | Chautauqua, Inc. |
| Country | USA |
| Based in | Durham, North Carolina |
| Language | English |
| Website | |
| ISSN | 0277-5743 |
All About Beer is an English-language magazine published by Chautauqua, Inc., located in Durham, NC, USA. It is published six times per year,[1] plus one special annual issue, and has a distribution of over 46,000, with subscribers and newsstand sales in more than 40 countries.
All About Beer is the oldest American publication for beer consumers.[2] It is written for the beer drinker, particularly those interested in new developments in craft beer and specialty brewing.[3]
History
All About Beer was founded in Los Angeles in 1979 by printing executive Mike Bosak and six colleagues from the print and publishing world. The first issue appeared in March of that year. None of the original founders was a beer expert.[4]
In 1982, ownership of All About Beer passed to MacMullen Publishing of Anaheim, CA, though Bosak and fellow founders Kenneth Yee and Terry Bratcher remained involved. By its third volume, the publication had adopted a conventional four-color magazine format. In 1988, Mike Bosak and his wife Bunny re-acquired the magazine.
When Bosak retired in 1992, he sold All About Beer to Daniel Bradford,[5] one of the founders and the first general director of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver,[6] and an occasional contributor to the magazine.
Bradford moved the magazine to Durham, NC. Julie Johnson served as editor from 2000 to 2011, with Bradford as publisher.[7] The magazine is co-owned today by Bradford and Johnson.
In 1995, All About Beer Magazine entered into an agreement with the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI, later Tastings.com) of Chicago to publish the results of the institute’s regular sampling of beers, grouped by style family. Each issue of All About Beer publishes a survey article on the most recent tasting results, a guide to what readers should expect from each style, and tasting notes on various beers.
On-line Presence
All About Beer’s companion website, allaboutbeer.com,[8] was launched in 1997. The sites contains regular beer news, two blogs, on-line-only beer reviews, and an archive of over 2,500 magazine articles and posts dating back to 2002.[9]
Notable Writers
English beer authority Michael Jackson began writing for All About Beer in 1984, and contributed “Jackson’s Journal” to the magazine for 23 years, until his death in 2007. This was Jackson’s longest regular association with any publication.[10]
Fred Eckhardt first wrote for the magazine in 1986, and began his regular column, “The Beer Enthusiast,” the following year.
Regular contributors include Jeff Evans, Charlie Papazian, and Roger Protz,
Festivals and Community Activities
Beginning in 1995, All About Beer has a hosted World Beer Festival in Durham, North Carolina,[11][12] as well as similar festivals in North Carolina, in 2006, in Columbia in 2009, Richmond, VA, in 2010, and in Cleveland and Tampa. Each festival is hosted as a fundraiser for a local non-profit organization.
In 2009, All About Beer Magazine established the annual Denver Rare Beer Tasting, a limited-ticket tasting fund-raiser at which American craft brewers are invited to present hard-to-find beers. These events have raised over $45,000 for Pints for Prostates, a men’s health organization.
Awards
All About Beer Magazine was voted best beer publication four years running by Ale and Lager Examiner. All About Beer Magazine feature articles won the Michael Jackson Award for Beer Journalism from Brewers Association four out of the five years the awards existed,[13] and earned more than 30 Quill and Tankard Awards for writing from the North American Guild of Beer Writers.
The World Beer Festival was ranked in top 10 American beer festivals of USA Today,[14] and the festival was given as one of four reasons by Wired Magazine to move to Raleigh, NC.
Publication information
The early years of the magazine were not always published regularly. Volume 1 comprised eight issues (1.1-1.8); Volume 2 had only five. Volume 3 comprised six issues, but the final broadsheet issue and the first issue in magazine form were both labeled 3.4. Volume 4 consisted of seven issues, before the magazine settled down to six issues per year in volumes 5 through 7. Volume 8 dropped again to five issues, and Volume 9 to four before the publication returned to the six regular issues per year that have been printed since then.
References
- ↑ Garrett Oliver (9 September 2011). The Oxford Companion to Beer. Oxford University Press. pp. 882–. ISBN 978-0-19-536713-3.
- ↑ Smith, Gregg. Beer: A History of Suds and Civilization from Mesopotamia to Microbreweries, Avon Books, 1995, pp. 217-219.
- ↑ Perozzi, Christine and Hallie Beaune. The Naked Pint. HealthX Digital. pp. 258–. GGKEY:BQGQ2T5KUL4.
- ↑ “All About Beer: In the Beginning,” All About Beer Magazine, vol. 21 no. 1, March, 2000, p. 7
- ↑ “New Publisher Takes Over at All About Beer Magazine,” Modern Brewery Age, May 10, 1993, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_n19_v44/ai_13977652/
- ↑ Papazian, Charlie. “Daniel Bradford Comes on as a Hired Gun,” April 9, 2009.
- ↑ Protz, Roger. “Michael Jackson and Beer Writing,” Brewery History: The Journal of the Brewery History Society, 2011, no. 139, p. 35
- ↑ David K. Wright; Monica G. Wright (1 January 2002). Great Minnesota Taverns. Trails Books. pp. 13–. ISBN 978-1-931599-12-2.
- ↑ Johanna Kramer (4 September 2012). Food Lovers' Guide to Raleigh, Durham & Chapel Hill: The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings. Globe Pequot. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-0-7627-7976-5.
- ↑ Smagalski, Carolyn. “Michael Jackson, Father of the Craft Brewing Renaissance in America,” Brewery History: The Journal of the Brewery History Society, 2011, no. 139, p. 37-59
- ↑ "All About Beer Magazine’s World Beer Festival 2012 – Recap W/ Pics". The Full Pine.
- ↑ "World Beer Festival: Brewers to share their craft in Columbia (+beer guide)". By JEFF WILKINSON The State, January 14, 2014
- ↑ “Meanwhile, in Other Michael Jackson News,” Beer Radar. Don Russell (a.k.a. Joe Sixpack) http://joesixpack.net/blog/archives/486
- ↑ “10 Great Beer Festivals to Tap into for Some Suds in the Summer Sun,” USA Today, June 10, 2004.
- Lees, Graham and Benjamin Myers (eds.). The Encyclopedia of World Beers: A Reference Guide for Connoisseurs, Bramley Books, 1997
- Ogle, Maureen. Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, Harcourt, 2006, p. 281
- “The Real Niche Publishing” Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, January 2010, p. 28-29.