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"All About Beer Magazine"
It is said that St. Louis has the richest brewing tradition in the nation. The gateway city has been home to many famous brewers, such as William J. Lemp Brewing Company and Anheuser Busch Inc, to micro-breweries such as Schlafly and O’Fallon Brewery. While St. Louis can boast about having high volume breweries and best selling beers, there have yet to be any major brewing publications made from this so called beer capital. Brewers are aware of the unique tradition the city holds, and have been focusing on ways to promote their beer. Last June 2009, St. Louis celebrated the Third Annual Brewers Heritage Festival. Sponsored by brewers such as Anheuser Busch & Schlafly, the festival was held in Forest Park as a way to promote beer they produce. Micro-breweries and home-brewers alike were asked to participate in the event to show the diversity St. Louis contains, compared to other large festivals held in the US. Promotions of the event were found on the radio and some billboards in the area, however much of this would be impossible without the help of Anheuser Busch & Schlafly. There is an obvious need for publication, but that’s not say that it has gone overlooked. National magazines are available such as Beer Advocate, Draft Magazine & All About Beer. Websites devoted to beer and blogs in St. Louis have also been created from beeradvocate.com & local sites such as stlhops.com. With these outlets available brewers still only see a fraction regarding their brewing information and festivals. That goes to say that much of St. Louis itself is left uninformed, as the only major publication is the St. Louis Post Dispatch that reaches those that don’t visit these websites.
"Schlafly Tap Room"
Tom Schlafly, Co-Founder of Schlafly in an article in May 2006, Perspective- Be Creative! Be Spontaneous said, “St. Louis needs to welcome creativity, encourage it and support it.” In the article Schlafly goes on to explain, “When we bought a derelict building at 2100 Locust in July 1991, we selected it largely because it was affordable. The building had been vacant since 1969, when Swift Printing Co. had moved out, and savvy real-estate people were positive that there was no future in the neighborhood. We wanted nothing more or less than a place to brew and sell beer, and this building suited our purposes. Now, less than two blocks away, residential lofts of 900 square feet are selling at prices higher than what we paid for our 40,000-square-foot building and an adjoining parking lot. Because we were there before the lofts and some other nearby developments, we get credit in some quarters for leading the revival. But neighborhood revitalization was never what we set out to accomplish.” It should be the goal of St. Louisians to develop a magazine or publication to help support and inform the city on the brewers and events. The benefits could transcend beyond just brewing information and events. Just as the Schlafly Tap Room was meant only as a building to brew beer, a magazine meant only to inform could energize a city, or a nation.
Comments
I believe that in a print medium format, such a magazine would not be able to survive past a couple of issues. Out of town folks may not be aware of the St. Louis Hops website, but for those that seek out beer spots when they travel are likely to Google it. For locals, when very good up to the minute information can be had at St. Louis Hops or go to any of the local brewpub websites, would they really consistently purchase a magazine that is not as timely for updates as can be found on the web? I really don't think so, but I am not in the publication business, so easy for me to speculate. When Schlafly's Tap Room opened, I may have doubted its long run success, so who knows, maybe. From my perspective, I don't see paying for a magazine when I can get the latest information at numerous websites. I might buy the first edition, but that's about it. There used to be a midwest regional beer newspaper years ago and that ceased eventually. I don't think a glossy one will cut it now.
I agree with Ted, but only in the sense that I think you need both. I have been to wesites like stlhops and I dont think that they attract enough attention or send out enough information. Magazine/website formats tork much better to achieve this goal. Websites like beeradvocate.com do both print and electronic media. The St. Louis Post dispatch has mystltoday.com. If a company like the St. Louis Post Dispatch picked up on a venture like a brewing magazine i think it would go over well. You would obviously need enough information to keep consumers coming back, but as for it not having enough information as other websites i just dont see it. Doesn't seem like many websites have that much information now. I think theres a pretty good chance it may do well in city like St. Louis.
Isn't the whole point to get information out about microbrews? It seems that anyone can get information on AB or other large brewers. I know of very few sites that tell me about the micro and home brews around. I wouldn't say i'm an expert on beer but after reading this article i remember not hearing much advertising about the heritage festival. I never hear any up coming events or news about micro brews. When i do see events its usually through metro mix. I dont know if a magazine is going to be successful, but i cant see it being any worse that the website information we have. I'm not going to lie i hate all blog sites like what i think beer advocate is. I usually read examiner to get a st. louis perspective. With AB pretty much gone it might be nice to have another form of beer information?
In Chicago, we still get the great Lakes edition of Brewing News, a chain of free craft brew papers that seems to cover everything EXCEPT the Midwest. And A-B usually has the back cover ad (don't sell that fact short: a full color back cover pays for color photos on the front cover, and on quite a few other pages, too). So somehow the StL contingent should be able to work out a proposal with brewingnews.com to get your own edition.
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