Just curious what you guys do with your old mags ( Zymurgy, BYO, etc)? I have quite a collection going and I hate to recycle them. They are full of great info and recipes. I know everything thing is digital now but I always like reading a hard copy. What can I say…married to a librarian.
I have 20 years worth of Zymurgy, BYO, Brewing Techniques and several others headed for recycling. No one wants them.
Ship them to Belgium. I’ll take them 
I’ve kept them all as a library of sorts in my wine cellar. I’ve referred to them intermittently over the years for recipes. I stopped BYO about 10 years ago or so, so I don’t have quite the collection that Denny has.
As a librarian, but not married to you, I advise letting them go. You can always retrieve the info you want later. If there are a handful of issues that have special meaning for you, set them aside.
I keep all of mine, but I’m not sure why. About 10 years ago, mid-2000s, I re-read every issue of BYO that I had accumulated over 5-6 years since I began brewing in 1999. Learned a lot from doing that actually, because by that point instead of being a total novice I was like intermediate level. Now I just keep them even though I know I’ll only read them once. But then if I ever want to look up an old article but it’s not online, I’ll still have the hard copy to go find it, if I wanted to. Yeah… that’ll never happen anymore. Maybe somebody will want them someday, I dunno.
I guess I’m a brewing magazine hoarder. I have boxes and boxes of Zymurgy and BYO going back 20 years-ish. I’m always convinced I might want to go back and consult them, but truthfully the oldest ones that came out before homebrewing knowledge is what it is now should just get tossed. Some day.
I just don’t have the space to store them. Much of the info is outdated now, and what isn’t outdated is now available online.
I love the convenience of online info but I still like reading on paper. This is especially true around liquids where losing the paper means I have the online backup and don’t have to worry about getting my laptop or phone wet or broken.
I have a stack of various magazines that I periodically go through and cut out what I want to keep and recycle or toss what I don’t. I generally only keep the recipes and construction tutorials out of homebrewing magazines. Eventually the recipes will probably go into a digital format (either scanned or xml) but keeping four or five pages instead of the whole magazine cuts down the storage space considerably.
I have a box of 15 year old BYO magazines. I will probably give them away to a new homebrewer. Even though they are a bit dated, the recipes are still sound in my opinion. In fact, I still brew the same recipes. I guess I am old school/stubborn old fart.
I keep them all on a shelf in my shop. Along with many years worth of Handyman Club of American, Wood, Wood Workers Journal and American Woodworker and Wood Craft magazines.
It took me years to let go of all the PC Magazine, Byte and InfoWorld rags from decades ago. If anyone needs Zip Disks or VHS tapes let me know. 8^)
And yes, I can see myself on one of those “Hoarders” TV shows when I’m 90. Nothing of mine will have any real value though. 8^( It took an hour of discussion to throw away 9 sets of baseball/softball cleats that haven’t fit any of my kids for 8 (or more) years. Nobody wanted them but it didn’t seem right to throw them away.
Don’t forget the wood scrap collection!!
Paul
You didn’t save them for the grandkids. :o
I toss them. There are plenty of online resources now that negate the need to keep a physical library.
I have a nearly complete collection of Zymurgy and BYO, starting in the mid-90’s. Like others have said, lots of info is inaccurate, especially before 2000, but I can’t bear to part with them. I like the feel of paper in my hands, too. Online just doesn’t cut it, and can we really be sure ezines will be available when stuff like the Zombie Apocalypse hits?
If you think about it, a collection of magazines like this documents a revolutionary period in American brewing, from start to… normalcy. In about 200 years, historians will write blogs based on what we knew and what we thought we knew in the 1990s and 2000s, and the future version of Gordon Strong will write BJCP Guidelines on it and get it almost right but it won’t be exactly right.
Almost makes you want to brew a Pre-Revolution concentrated boil amber ale with 3.3 lb amber LME, 2 lb corn sugar, 1 oz Eroica, top up with chlorinated water, and pitch Munton’s yeast warm and allow to cool down, doesn’t it?!
We’ve come a long way, baby. 
How often do you look at them? That was the deciding factor for me.
More often than you might think, especially the issues within the last five years. Not so much for the older ones.
More often than you might think, especially the issues within the last five years. Not so much for the older ones.
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Wow, WAY ahead of me!
I’m starting a new thread “old nudie magazines.”
Keith, please copy and paste this entire thread there. Replace Zymurgy with Playboy and BYO with Penthouse
I’m sure someone out there would snatch them up. For the articles of course. ???