I recently received my inaugural issue of Beer Advocate Magazine. I’d signed up for it so long ago I’d forgotten about it, so when it showed up in my mailbox it was a pleasant surprise.

For the very few of you who might not be familiar with it, the Beer Advocate website has been around for about 10 years. It originally started as primarily for people to rate beers, but over the years it has expanded to include beer news, education, hosting a Belgian Beer festival, and, simply just being one of the top sites on the world wide web for and about beer.

When I saw the Alström brothers were starting a magazine it was a no-brainer to sign up for it. As they point out in their opening message on page 3:

As far as we know, the US doesn’t have a monthly beer magazine dedicated to consumers…While there are magazines for homebrewers and the industry, consumers of beer have nothing on a national, monthly basis, like enthusiasasts of wine, food, cigars and, um, cats do.

Well, okay, Celebrator and All About Beer are bi-monthly. Ale Street News is a “brewspaper”, and Brewing News offers a selection of regional beer newspapers. So, yeah, technically, no monthly US magazine. (Okay, so that’s picking at nits.)

They also said:

…the mainstream press as a whole isn’t doing a hell of a lot for beer. Sure, they cover wine, food and cocktails routinely, but seldom great beer. A monthly print publication, targeted at longtime beer geeks and newbies alike, can help raise awareness for beer and present endless new ways of looking at beer.

All of those previously mentioned periodicals are definitely focused on established beer geeks. Casual beer fans, or “newbies”, would probably not find those publications terribly interesting. And, yeah, beer gets short-shrift from the mainstream media. It’s always shocking to me to see a story about beer in a newspaper or on a television news program that isn’t about some yahoo who stole a beer truck or about how bad beer is for your health. (And why we tend to feature such stories here.)

But how is it?

It is well put together, with nicely laid-out glossy pages. The first issue includes articles on freshness dates, pros and cons; Weizenbock; a profile of brewer Tomme Arther from Lost Abbey; the resurgence of cans; how Garrett Oliver and others are showing how to choose a beer instead of wine with different foods; plus beer news and a whole host of beer reviews from the website, among other features. The articles are engaging and humorous and each author’s individuality comes through. Even the advertisements are cool because they’re full color and almost entirely from craft brewers. I’ve found a lot of beers and beerpubs I’d like to visit just from looking at the ads.

In general, I try not to let first impressions have too much weight. (It’s a good thing, too, or I never would have married my wife.) But if the Beer Advocate magazine can keep up this level of quality I will be more than happy to renew my subscription.