My congratulations and blessings to Daniel and Julie Bradford for making this magazine the great success that it has become in its 25th year. The brewing community owes them a great debt for what they have done to make this the greatest beer magazine on the planet. I remember the low point years ago, when it was owned by a survivalist publishing company, with a centerfold devoted to a Beermate of the Month.
In November 1984 (5:6), Michael Jackson made his first appearance. Now the magazine was off and running.
The first issue, as a 16-page bimonthly tabloid newspaper in 1979, showed promise, claiming 20,000 circulation, which was especially good for those precarious times. It was a publication of Mike Bosak’s Beer Drinkers International, out of Calabasas, CA, with editor Sam Hicks, a protégé of mystery novelist Earle Stanley Gardner.
The beer situation in 1979 was not all that promising. There was a beer strike in Canada, and yellow industrial American beer was selling there as a high-priced import, with wonderful Canadian beer not available at all.
That was the good news. The bad news was that there were 91 US breweries, and only three of them were “boutique” breweries (“micro” and “craft” hadn’t been invented yet). The really bad news was that experts predicted there’d only be 10 breweries in the United States by 1996.
A Pretty Good Rag
That first issue of All About Beer Magazine was pretty good. There was a nice article about how home brewing had just been legalized, and another about the delights of Anchor Steam Beer, the brewery of which was just settling into then-new digs on San Francisco’s Mariposa Street.
The tabloid format continued through volume 3 (I think). My spotty collection ends at 3:3 with 120,000 readers in tow. By the time I acquired my next issue (4:1, January 1983), the publication had gone to full magazine format under the leadership of survivalist publisher McMullen on a five-year agreement with Mike Bosak as “editorial consultant.” There was a mix of sporting news, big brewer news and Hollywood personalities’ doings.
But February’s issue had a blond Beermate of the Month firmly ensconced in the center pages and featured on the front cover as a small inset. I lost all interest when I found she was wearing a swimsuit. By now there were some 11 American craft (“micro”) brewers in operation, but already three had failed, including Oregon’s first. The Beermate of the Month was gone by the November issue (4:7). The magazine really was getting better.
The May 1984 (5:3) publication featured an interview with a very young looking Michael Jackson, whose 1976 World Guide to Beer had created a tidal wave of beer interest, casting new light on the great (and dying) beer styles of the Old World. His book would become instrumental in saving those classics in a great revival of beer culture. The same issue was to introduce Dan Bradford to the readers with his review of Samuel Smith’s beers, Oatmeal Stout and Nut Brown Ale.
