Philly Beer Scene magazine

So I think it’s pretty hard to eff up a magazine dedicated to beer drinking in Philly because that concept is intoxicating enough, but I perused the debut issue of Philly Beer Scene magazine and have a few observations. I’ll start with the letter from the President. Last time I checked, most publications were run by Editors, and other titles include Writer or Director, even Founder, not President (or Dictator or Bad Ass Mofo), but enough with my semantics rant. In this letter, Scott acknowledges two important Philly beer writers- Lew Bryson and Don Russell- but somehow forgets one very notable Philly beer writer- Jack Curtin, whose blog is among many in my Google Reader lineup and whose commentary is read by loads of beer fanatics in countless other publications. He even offered the first online review of this magazine!

I’ll try to overlook the choppy writing style to note that PBS intends to focus on pretty much just drinking and visiting bars rather than to “bore you” on the technical side of beer. Ok, so now I know what I’m in for… a magazine that concentrates on just the culture without much content. Maybe we can expect future articles on how to hold a tulip glass properly or beer pong strategies or juke box etiquette so I don’t have to listen to that annoying Flobots song 4 times over while trying to enjoy Stone IRS (a near perfect beer IMO). Since the PBS mission statement seems to imply it will stick to covering the people and places and not the technical details of beer, why even bother to include a homebrew recipe for a Witbier or rate beer? Not to mention of the 12 beers reviewed, only 2 were from the Philly area! My other suggestion is to use beer mugs instead of stars for rating- sort of a glass half empty or half full approach and more relatable to beer culture. Onto the photography… It’s great how the magazine has taken a beer goggles approach to each photo, but I might prefer looking at them if they were more in focus.

Now cue useless skin shot. First, don’t misinterpret my next few comments as bitter girl jealousy. I have nothing against Playboy or other comparable magazines or even porn- they don’t profess to be anything else but clothing challenged. The articles in those magazine (yes, there are some) could read “jkgaheankzlbeoia” and nobody would know any different. I know PBS cites its target demographic is 21-35 year old men, but any magazine about beer, even if just about drinking beer, that considers making its cover (the premiere even!) of a girl dressed in “walk of shame” attire is pathetic. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a woman clad in a flag drinking at a bar. And I’m still not convinced that wasn’t the beer providing that memory… Having been involved in the car industry for over a decade, I see this kind of crap all the time, and it’s frustrating. Lots of really educated, beautiful kick-ass girls like great craft beer (or work on their own cars) and we don’t need to be bombarded with some oversexed image anytime we try to read something about it. Luckily, 65% of the voters agreed with me.

I can’t just keep knocking this magazine without at least acknowledging a few good things. I do think the homebrew and food recipes are useful columns even if they don’t seem to fit the magazine’s focus. I also liked the article about outdoor bars with good beer (though I can think of a lot that were left off like UJ’s Manatawny, Ortino’s Northside, Half Moon Restaurant– technically a covered rooftop but very outdoorsy, and many of the bars in Phoenixville) and the directory (when it’s updated) will provide a paper version of The Beer Mapping Project for locals. The Ales of Revolution article had some great history but lacked focus. Was the article about the Yards new beer series with recipes developed from beers our founding fathers brewed? Or beers that have been around since a century after Revolutionary times, such as Yuengling? Or beers brewed in the namesake of our founding fathers, such as the tidbit on Sam Adams, the modern day Boston brewer founded in 1984 using a reformulated version of an 1860 lager recipe? This critique is obviously my personal point of view as somebody who enjoys the “boring” technical details and there probably is a market for beer drinkers who want to construct their own beer bottle lawn darts. I’ll read the next issue which promises 8 additional pages (hopefully full of content), but if this magazine intends to focus on beer “culture” from a subjective point of view, I’ll be using it simply as a coaster for my glass.