Lawrence Brewers Guild

All I want for Christmas is a subscription to a brand spankin new beer mag!!!!!

BeerAdvocate.com, a long time beer enthusiast website is going PRINT, releasing Beer Advocate Magazine. The First issue (January '07) ships this month, and at only $29.95 for 12 issues of glossy beer goodness, you can bet your barrels I will be gettin in on it! Beer Advocate founders were running a "founding member" special which included a tshirt, and an inaugural issue (Dec '06), but sadly the offer has expired.

Article about the mag can be found here:
http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/664

and subscriptions can be purchased here:
http://beeradvocate.com/mag/

I received my first issue of Beer Advocate magazine this week. Weighing in at only 56 pages it is a bit lighter than I had hoped, with nearly one third of the content being made up by ads. The articles within are written in a rather amateur style (much like my own) but thankfully still make their point, and are easy to read.

Focusing on the Extreme Beer phenomenon that has swept the US over the past 10 years, the February issue opens with a quip from the Beer Advocate founders titled ?Hate the name, not the beer? that sets the stage for a debate between the pro and anti ?Extreme beer? brewers and encourages the reader to stop concerning themselves with the term ?Extreme? and instead start enjoying some kick ass beer. The two sides are illustrated in articles titled "Why we need Extreme Beer? and "Extremely boring". Additional articles within the issue cover topics from the steadily increasing price of craft beer, to an interview with one of the geekier faces in the beer world; Matthew Younkle, the inventor of the Turbo Tap. Overall, the new tech, beer and pub reviews, Brewery spotlights, and even a short learn to brew article written by the former prez of the Maltose falcons round the rag out nicely. It is a fun and light hearted approach to the world of beer without any noses in the air. The writing will hopefully improve with time, and I sincerely hope to see more of it and less ad filler.

The issue ends with an article in the ?final thought? style written by Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams. In it he reflects upon the extreme beer movement that many credit him with starting. ?I?ve always believed America deserves its own style of brewing; one that could only be born in a culture that pushes boundaries by doing everything to the nth degree. Americans didn?t invent the bicycle, but we did make it do 360s off a ramp. We didn?t invent the guitar, but plugged it in. And we didn?t invent beer, but we are taking it to unimagined places.? Well put Jim.

Beer Advocate Magazine subscriptions are available at www.beeradvocate.com/mag