P.S. That cover was pretty bad, I have to admit.

Avi Adelman
Dallas, Texas

-Sean

P.S. I have never read Beer Advocate, but I am a fan of Draft Magazine. It has interesting and well written features and still maintains and “everyman” style that won’t put off “Joe Six-pack”.

But your review DID come off as elitist and snobby. Listen, not every beer is for every person, and I’ll say the same thing about magazines. But you talk about what craft brewers are “trying to do”, and I think you’re missing the point here. Craft brewers are trying to make 2 things: Money, and Good Beer. They’re not going to make the first if people don’t drink their beer, and they’re not going to make the second if they don’t get enough of the first, mate. The reason so many excellent brewers signed on as advertisers to support this mag is because they feel that the Beer Mag people are helping them accomplish their goals. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. They think enough people will be influenced by their ads in this magazine that it will positively impact sales, and I do believe they’re right.

See, others have said this, but it bears repeating. You may not think you come off as snobby or elitist, but to the average yellow, fizzy beer drinker, you do. I am a homebrewer…I brew nothing lighter than an English Bitter (admittedly light). But I work with an office full of people who drink nothing but Coors Light…Bud Light. That’s it. When I first got to this office, I made fun of their beer. I told them it was pure crap. I didn’t say it in so many words, but I definitely said it. I realized something: These people were actually LESS receptive to trying beers I was drinking when I was saying things like that.

The Beer Mag people realize that they have the unique opportunity to bridge the gap here. They can review the domestic “yuck” beers in the premiere issue, rope in those who drink such beers into buying a subscription (and getting their bud a free one into the bargain), and then show them a side of beer that they never knew existed. I just got done reading issue #3, and there’s a good article in there about homebrewing. What beers you think they’ll homebrew? Ales are easiest because of their warmer fermentation temperature, and when they go to buy their first kit, they Local Homebrew Store guy will tell them that. They’ll drink the ale…like it because they made it….and MAYBE develop a taste for better beers.

This issue’s article on Stone Brewery was top-notch. They reviewed some more beers I’d never tried. They wrote an article on how to smell your beer. All of these articles and reviews are interesting to someone who loves GOOD beer, like myself, and yet accessible to those who don’t know what good beer is. It’s easy to see what they’re trying to do.

Your review was very well-written, but I think misdirected. I enjoy the magazine (now that they’ve toned down the bikini chicks) and look forward to the rest of my subscription. I’m even going to be adding another year to it today.

I had actually intended to let Derek’s recent comments remain the last word on the topic but I’ll comment briefly on some of the points you raise. I think that if you look back upon the hundreds of articles I’ve written over the last decade, you would be hard pressed to conclude that I’m a snob when it comes to the larger brewers. If that’s your thought, I’m going to hook you up with the vocal group of people who think I go too easy on the big guys and let me know what you all come up with. As to the PC issues, they were offered tongue-in-cheek in case you missed it…

As stated in my first media draft, I couldn’t agree more on the state of present day American beer writing, especially when it comes to the bi-monthly ‘brewspapers.’ The problems are myriad, including poor writing and conflicts of interest stemming from, as you note, free schwag.

And let’s be clear about Beer Magazine, it’s intended audience, and its effect. I have no problem with a magazine that chooses to focus less on beer geek issues and more on mainstream beer-related content. I also have no problem, and see a market for, a publication with a sense of humor and style that caters to a younger, male demographic. Beer Magazine, as I pointed out in detail in the review, fails to achieve these goals. A review is inherently a subjective thing, as you note, and I personally found the writing and content to be stale and poorly executed. I think there is a market here for a smarter publication (a la Maxim). Beer Magazine is not it.

You seem to harbor the opinion that I am anti-big brewer. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a single reference in any article I’ve ever written to swill or any other derogatory term about the products produced by the big breweries. As that seems to be the central theme underlying your screed (‘pseudo-intellectual bullshit,’ ‘pseudo elitism,’, ‘snobbiness,’ ‘stupid and unsophisticated,’ ‘blue collar,’ ‘Joe Sixpacks’), I suggest you rethink it. Or at least take your argument to the beer geeks who have so clearly struck a bad chord with you.

The main point, on which I hope all beer writers and lovers can agree, is this: It’s about respecting beer, all beer. When a writer, brewer, or distributor disrespects beer, I have a problem with that. When Boston Beer disrespected beer by appearing on a sex game show on the Opie and Anthony Show, I took it to task. I take the big brewers to task for disrespecting beer in some of their advertisements, and praise other big breweries who treat beer with respect. I also take beer geeks to task (in my articles and in on-line forums) for criticizing big brewers in the thoughtless and simplistic terms that you mentioned in your comment. And when an editor and a new magazine disrespect beer, as I believe Beer Magazine has in its premiere issue, I will take it to task as well.

You noted that “Beer Magazine comes along, and because it doesn’t subscribe to the fawning notion that everything the craft beer industry pumps out is pure nectar, it’s immediately attacked.”

I think the situation is actually reversed. I’ve long promoted being honest and critical of the industry, and I’m among a small minority here and have taken a lot of flack for it (see comments on the recent Rapscallion thread or read my book). Beer Magazine doesn’t have a critical bone in its body and certainly should not be immune from criticism for its misdeeds.

I think your larger, if misdirected, point is a good one. Craft brewers need to carefully balance themselves so as to promote a superior product (in terms of flavor, aroma, taste, ingredients, or whatever they choose to focus on) while not alienating the average beer drinker (who may or may not care about craft beers at any point in their lives). That doesn’t mean, however, that they should debase their product and its value or align themselves with those who do.

And finally, about your comment on disclosure. I specifically ran a disclaimer at the beginning of this Media Draft series about my writing relationships (similar to your point, and in agreement with Derek, I would disagree that BeerAdvocate and Beer Magazine actually compete with one another; they target very different audiences that are not likely to overlap. Beverage Magazine is entirely a trade magazine with a closed audience of subscribers so little competition there either). As I’m sure you know (as you quoted from it), it appears on the same page as the Beer Magazine review. Now if you think it should run in every article I post (along with the other half-dozen magazines I occasionally contribute to), that’s something I’d consider. But the information is available on that page and dozens of others (including the ‘About’ page)…

Best,

Andy

P.S. I’ve just received a copy of your recent Chicago brewing history book and I look forward to reviewing it in a future issue.

I’m not here, however, to discuss the subjectiveness of the taste of beers, but rather to bring up the snobbiness that surrounds the craft beer industry, the pseudo-elitism that shouts “My beer is better than yours” whenever beers like Schlitz, Pabst and Hamms are mentioned, aside from the usual digs at current mainstream beers.

Now Beer Magazine comes along, and because it doesn’t subscribe to the fawning notion that everything the craft beer industry pumps out is pure nectar, it’s immediately attacked.

But wait; there’s more. From the derogatory reference to the model on the magazine’s cover as a “bleach blond ‘bimbette’,” to your mention of an inside story that features “three bikinied ‘broads’ playing beer pong,” I wonder what happened to political correctness and sexism in your neck of the woods?

Most of the beer rags that are now on newstands are filled with monthly stories that follow the same old stories with a typical and uninspiring approach; new brewpub opens up, old pub closes, same beer reviewers demonstrate their tired uses of obscure beer industry terminology that does little to make me go out and try the beer, but does help me to decide to turn the page and let my subscription lapse. The monthly features wind up being little more than gossip and endorsement columns, probably stoked by free meals, beer and swag. Those breweries who advertise in these publications probably realize that they’re actually preaching to the choir—the 5%—since the remaining 80% market of beer drinkers who seldom pick up a craft beer, surely wouldn’t pick up one of these craft beer-oriented papers and magazines either.

And now Derek Buono comes along and disregards a tired business model that targets that 5% market of craft beer drinkers and looks at that 80% who don’t live and breathe beer, who couldn’t give 2 shits about some sour farmhouse beer from Belgium, but might like a few light-hearted stories that have the slightest connection to beer. And at the same time, Buono somehow manged to entice Shiner, Bridgeport, Widmer, Dogfish Head, Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, Brewery Ommegang, Flying Dog, Alaskan, the Brewers Association, Redhook, and Trumer to advertise in his magazine.

Why? Because these breweries are probably looking at courting the untapped 80% who might pick up one of their beers, without this ignored and abused market reading the typical drivel about how stupid and unsophisticated they are, and instead, reading about the joys of boiling a hot dog in a Coors Lite or the joy of pairing a MacDonalds burger with an ice cold glass of Pabst rather that one more story about hunting down an obscure Belgian Bomber that some “expert” insists can only be paired with a $45 per pound runny cheese made from the unpasteurized milk from cows from a small village in southern France.

Even Buono points out in his posted reply that “We never intended our magazine to attract the beer geek who posts every minute of his life how he cannot find a good beer anymore.” But his business model, from a guy who has actually put his money where his mouth is, isn’t good enough for you? At least the guy is trying.

You say that “The magazine is such an affront to what most craft brewers are trying to accomplish…” Clue me in here, but I think most craft brewers are trying to make a profit, maybe have some money left over for a marriage, a mortgage, groceries and maybe one day, enough money to expand their operations. You can only do this when you reach an audience big enough to keep you brewing at full-capacity.

Your remark that one artcle “…seem[s] well-suited and topical paeans to the magazine’s audience” or that “its appeal is clearly designed to appeal to the Maxim/frat crowd” really smacks of elitism, no, let me correct that, pure snobism. It’s us vs. them; Intelligent craft beers drinkers vs. the unwashed masses who drink “swill.”

Fortunately, the folks at Shiner, Bridgeport, Widmer, Dogfish Head, Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, Brewery Ommegang, Flying Dog, Alaskan, the Brewers Association, Redhook, and Trumer have decided to skip the pseudo-intellectual bullshit that permeates, not the craft brewing industry per se, but the small group of vocal geeks who’ve managed to turn off so many of the Joe-Sixpacks. These “Blue Collar” beer drinkers might want to pick up a six-pack of Three Floyds Alpha King, perhaps, except for the image in their head of the annoying skinny Mac jackass in the PC vs. Mac commercials. It’s that same snobby image that keeps the BudCoorsMiller crowd from trying craft beer. Ever notice though, that they seem to find no problem with ordering an import?

Why are import sales growing every year? Why does the BudCoorsMiller beer drinker think nothing of ordering an import? Because importers aren’t positioning their beer drinkers as smarter than the BudCoorsMiller drinkers. And please don’t sneer that that’s not imported beer; that they’re drinking “Heineken and Labatt Blue.”

So good luck to the people behind Beer Magazine and good luck too to the craft brewers who realize that it will take more than “training wheel” beers to attract that fat and lucrative 80% of the market that wants to try a craft beer or two. Treat them with respect, tone down the slurs about their [lack of] tastes in beer, don’t talk down to them and encourage craft brewers to expand their advertising in magazines with more generalized appeal—and watch craft beer sales grow.

P.S. Andy, I noticed that you didn’t mention, in the spirit of full disclosure, your affilliation with BeerAdvocate Magazine, where you write a column, and your bi-monthly feature for Beverage Magazine.

After hammering a competitive magazine like Beer, it would have been nice to mention this before you went after a brand new, first issue, of a competitor.

A. We are a publishing company, we have other titles that are not about beer. What we do publish are things we have an interest in, so our magazines are designed around the enthusiast (you’d be surprised in the similarities between “hobbies”) and are made first for a reader and then as a business. We are not some company with no publishing background. The owner started his company over 11 years ago, and we’re in most major bookstores around the world.

B. While you may not see what we are doing, or maybe you do is bring in readers that are more casual about beer. We never intended our magazine to attract the beer geek who posts every minute of his life how he cannot find a good beer anymore. We are targeting a younger drinker that is just coming into the age of discovering the wide variety of quality beer around the country and isn’t going to read just about beer.

My analogy for you is that Michael Schumacher doesn’t read F1 magazine to learn how to drive, and why would a brewer or a beer wizard level 12 look to read a magazine to learn more about what he already thinks he knows (everything)?

But as a “beginner magazine” (which I’ll use loosely because we actually have a lot of good quality content for the beer enthusiast) we are looking to bring an awareness to beer, and not just craft. Those “people” who craft enthusiast seem to have who drink BMC (the majority of sales right) can actually like their beer and are happy with it. People can like things we don’t. But I think that if you immediate talk to them like craft beer is a different social class…well they won’t listen.

So the feedback I’ve gotten from readers is been really positive, offering good feedback and seemingly the target we intended. They are beer drinkers that like a fun magazine to read and one that they will learn something from. Even if they walk away with just one piece of beer information, or the inclination to try a craft beer instead of what they normally drink my goal as a magazine is complete.

I’ll leave arguing who is the best beer, best beer drinker, and the quest for the beer that doesn’t exist to the internet where its’ fun to pretend that one opinion is more valuable than another.

I’ve even gotten some emails from other people in the industry that didn’t like Issue 1 (mainly because we had a few too many Boob pictures) have said they heard good things about #2 and are starting to “get” what we are doing. But I’m the one bringing down the entire craft movement, lol. We’ll I guess I’ll be famous for something other than my Toilet Paper Shootout.

Andy