All About Beer

Last updated
All About Beer
CategoriesFood and drink magazine
Frequency Bi-monthly
PublisherDaniel Bradford
Total circulation
(2012)		46,000
Founded1979
Final issue
Number		March 2018
39
CompanyChautauqua, Inc.
CountryUSA
Based inDurham, North Carolina
Language English
Website www.allaboutbeer.com
ISSN 0277-5743

All About Beer was an English-language magazine published by All About Beer, LLC. Under previous owner Chris Rice, it filed for bankruptcy in 2019. [1] It was located in Durham, NC, USA and was published six times per year, [2] plus one special annual issue. At its peak it had a distribution of over 46,000, with subscribers and newsstand sales in more than 40 countries.

Contents

All About Beer was the oldest American publication for beer consumers. [3] It was written for the beer drinker, particularly those interested in new developments in craft beer and specialty brewing. [4]

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. [5]

In 1982, ownership of All About Beer passed to McMullen 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, [6] one of the founders and the first general director of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, [7] and an occasional contributor to the magazine.

Bradford moved the magazine to Durham, NC. Julie Johnson served as an editor from 2000 to 2011, with Bradford as publisher. [8]

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. That relationship ended in 2015 when the magazine began doing in-house beer reviews, headed by beer editor Ken Weaver and blind tasting panels across the country.

John Holl was named editor of the magazine in 2013 and Jon Page was installed as managing editor. The magazine was sold to Rice in 2014 who gave himself the titles of president, publisher and CEO. [9] Shortly thereafter, he began to bounce employee paychecks and was delinquent on paying vendors, contributors, and consultants. [10]

Both Holl and Page left the magazine in 2017. Daniel Hartis was installed as editor and worked in the position until October 2018, when Rice laid off any remaining staff. A bankruptcy filing showed that Rice had put the once profitable company into $4.5 million of debt.

In 2017, All About Beer LLC acquired [11] competing beer publication Draft magazine and quickly discontinued its print form. The bankruptcy filings show that Christopher Byron Rice still owed the previous owners of Draft a substantial amount of money from the purchase.

In 2022, it was announced that John Holl and Andy Crouch have acquired the All About Beer brand, digital assets, and editorial archive. [12]

On-line Presence

All About Beer’s companion website, allaboutbeer.com, [13] was launched in 1997. The sites contains regular beer news, two blogs, on-line-only beer reviews, and an archive of over 5,000 magazine articles and posts dating back to 2002. [14]

Notable Writers

English beer authority Michael Jackson (writer) 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. [15]

Fred Eckhardt first wrote for the magazine in 1986, and began his regular column, “The Beer Enthusiast,” the following year.

Regular contributors included Jeff Alworth, John Holl, Tom Acitelli, Garrett Oliver, Brian Yaeger, Joe Stange, Evan Rail, Heather Vandenengel, Lew Bryson, Jeff Evans, Charlie Papazian, Adrian Tierney-Jones, Dan Rabin, Rick Lyke and Roger Protz.

Festivals and Community Activities

Beginning in 1995, All About Beer has a hosted World Beer Festival in Durham, North Carolina, [16] [17] as well as similar festivals in North Carolina, in 2006, in Columbia, South Carolina in 2009, [18] Richmond, VA, in 2010, and in Cleveland and Tampa. Each festival is hosted as a fundraiser for a local non-profit organization. Rice sold the festival side of the business in 2018 to manage debts.

In 2009, All About Beer Magazine partnered with Pints for Prostates to establish 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. That relationship was ended while Rice was publisher of All About Beer, but the publication is once again the event's media sponsor with Holl and Crouch in place.

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, [19] and earned more than 30 Quill and Tankard Awards for writing from the North American Guild of Beer Writers.

Between 2013 - 2018, the magazine won 12 national writing awards and one international award for its beer coverage.

The World Beer Festival was ranked in top 10 American beer festivals of USA Today, [20] 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. The final printed issue was Volume 39 , Issue 1 which was released in March 2018.

Related Research Articles

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Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water and tea. Beer is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the beer. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such as gruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stout</span> Style of dark beer

Stout is a dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout, though can also be cold fermented, such as Baltic porter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pale ale</span> Type of ale

Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared in England around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Different brewing practices and hop quantities have resulted in a range of tastes and strengths within the pale ale family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jackson (writer)</span> Beer and whisky expert

Michael James Jackson was an English writer and journalist. He was the author of many influential books about beer and whisky. He was a regular contributor to a number of broadsheets, particularly The Independent and The Observer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pale lager</span> Light-colored low-temperature beer

Pale lager is a pale-to-golden lager beer with a well-attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India pale ale</span> Beer with high hop content

India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale.

Berliner Weisse is a cloudy, sour beer of around 3.5% alcohol by volume. It is a regional variation of the wheat beer style from Northern Germany, dating back to at least the 16th century. It can be made from combinations of malted barley and wheat, with the stipulation that the malts are kilned at very low temperatures or even air-dried to minimise colour formation. The fermentation takes place with a mixture of yeast and lactic acid bacteria, a prerequisite that creates the lactic acid taste, a distinguishing feature of Berliner Weisse.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beer in South Korea</span> Overview of beer in South Korea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American pale ale</span> Style of pale ale developed in the United States around 1980

American pale ale (APA) is a style of pale ale developed in the United States around 1980.

The Golden Tap Awards (GTAs) is an annual beer awards event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The awards are sponsored and presented by The Bar Towel, a website and forum dedicated to the discussion and promotion of Toronto's craft and microbrew beer scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brewers Association</span>

The Brewers Association (BA) is an American trade group of over 5,400 brewers, breweries in planning, suppliers, distributors, craft beer retailers, and individuals particularly concerned with the promotion of craft beer and homebrewing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Founders Brewing Company</span> Michigan-based craft-style beer brewer

Canal Street Brewing Co., LLC, doing business as Founders Brewing Company, is a brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, known for producing several highly rated and award-winning craft-style ales, including KBS, Centennial IPA, Dirty Bastard, and Founders Porter. Since its founding as a craft brewery in the mid-1990s, it has grown to become the 15th largest brewery in the United States, and a prominent member of the West Michigan brewing industry. It is now majority-owned by Mahou San Miguel of Spain.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porter (beer)</span> Dark style of beer

Porter is a style of beer first brewed in London, England, in the early 18th century. The name is believed to have originated from its popularity with porters.

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References

  1. ↑ "With $4.5M in debt, All About Beer magazine files for bankruptcy". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ Garrett Oliver (9 September 2011). The Oxford Companion to Beer. Oxford University Press. p. 882. ISBN   978-0-19-536713-3.
  3. ↑ Smith, Gregg. Beer: A History of Suds and Civilization from Mesopotamia to Microbreweries, Avon Books, 1995, pp. 217-219.
  4. ↑ Perozzi, Christine and Hallie Beaune. The Naked Pint. HealthX Digital. p. 258. GGKEY:BQGQ2T5KUL4.
  5. ↑ “All About Beer: In the Beginning,” All About Beer Magazine, vol. 21 no. 1, March, 2000, p. 7
  6. ↑ “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/
  7. ↑ Papazian, Charlie. “Daniel Bradford Comes on as a Hired Gun,” April 9, 2009.
  8. ↑ Protz, Roger. “Michael Jackson and Beer Writing,” Brewery History: The Journal of the Brewery History Society, 2011, no. 139, p. 35
  9. ↑ "All About Beer Magazine Gets New Ownership Structure". www.adweek.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  10. ↑ Venutolo-Mantovani, Michael (November 27, 2018). "For 39 Years, Local Mag All About Beer Shaped the Craft Beer Scene. This Is How It Collapsed". INDY Week. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ "All About Beer Magazine Acquires and Discontinues Physical DRAFT Magazine". pastemagazine.com. 30 August 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Welcome Back To All About Beer - A letter from our Editors". allaboutbeer.com. 27 April 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  13. ↑ David K. Wright; Monica G. Wright (January 1, 2002). Great Minnesota Taverns. Trails Books. p. 13. ISBN   978-1-931599-12-2.
  14. ↑ Johanna Kramer (4 September 2012). Food Lovers' Guide to Raleigh, Durham & Chapel Hill: The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings. Globe Pequot. p. 20. ISBN   978-0-7627-7976-5.
  15. ↑ Smagalski, Carolyn. “Michael Jackson, Father of the Craft Brewing Renaissance in America,” Brewery History: The Journal of the Brewery History Society, 2011, no. 139, pp. 37-59
  16. ↑ "All About Beer Magazine’s World Beer Festival 2012 – Recap W/ Pics". The Full Pine.
  17. ↑ "World Beer Festival: Brewers to share their craft in Columbia (+beer guide)" Archived 2014-01-17 at the Wayback Machine . Jeff Wilkinson The State, January 14, 2014
  18. ↑ "World Beer Columbia 2023 & 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina, USA - FestivalNexus". 17 April 2023.
  19. ↑ “Meanwhile, in Other Michael Jackson News,” Beer Radar. Don Russell (a.k.a. Joe Sixpack) "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ↑ “10 Great Beer Festivals to Tap into for Some Suds in the Summer Sun,” USA Today, June 10, 2004.
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