FOOLCiRCLE

Just finished the November Issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine, check out the ‘The Device’ on the cover, pretty cool.

BOOM! Page one there’s a picture of Ron Jeremy and the BA Bros, I love their sense of humor, ahhh. Per usual the articles in this issue are pretty tight and pretty short and don’t necessarily follow a full on theme, but at the same time they are informative and entertaining, just about what a magazine should be. First thing that is really worth note for me is the 9 Steps to Beerdom again, this time with Adam Avery from Avery Brewing Company in Colorado. Avery reminds me of DFH in some ways in that they started with one line-up of beers as there foundation, have progressed to a newer line-up of beers, plus have really pushed the boundary of high alcohol “extreme” beers. His story is very similar to a lot of the brewers stories that I’ve read: started as a homebrewer, became a broke-ass pro-brewer running there own deal, go big or go home, find your nitch and evoke the passion there, and always keep progressing.

Next was the cover story, or at least the story about the picture on the cover, ‘The Device’. ‘The Device’ is the brain-child of John Carnett a photographer and DIYer for Popular Science. Basically the idea came about to build a small-scale device that could showcase beer from conception to consumption.  So you can brew beer, ferment beer, and serve beer all from this one device, sweet! He says that he tells his wife that it cost $4500 to make, so I’m sure it was a nice bit more than that. Fortunately it seems for him that this thing has been a huge success for him and he is now in the design phase to help develop similar devices both on the homebrewing level and the professional level, very cool. Ironically when asked how the first batch turned out he never got to try it! He accidentally left a hose clamp loose and went away on a trip only to return to the beer no longer in the device but everywhere else. The only thing I would want to change immediately to this device that could be easily remedied is the fact that it can only brew extract batches, no all grain. Neat idea!

There was later another long article on homebrewing (not really normal for this magazine) that was like seven pages long and was very broad. The time-line at the bottom of the pages was neat, it covered the modern history of homebrewing from the mid 1500s to present day. After that the article was very general to me, like a showcase to bring in new homebrewers. Some of the topics included: online resources, required reading, basics, “advanced tips”, award-winning tips, and a piece about brew-on-premise places. Kind of weak overall, but glad to see homebrewing get such a big showcase in BA Magazine.

And of course there were like some reviews, or something.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 am and is filed under Magazines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.