So I got both my Zymurgy and BYO in the mail yesterday. What do I see on the cover of both? Dark Cascadian beer articles. While I have not yet read them so I don’t know how different they are, I couldn’t help but notice this is again a time when both magazines in the same time period have the same topic covered. The last one I can remember this happened is when they both did malt conditioning articles (although Kai’s article kicked BYO’s ass all over the place). How does this happened? Coincidence, on purpose? It just bugs me a bit that when looking forward to two magazines they both have similar or the same content.
Displaced spies from the end of the cold war have gone to work in the public sector. Each magazine has it’s own mole deep in the trenches. :o
Hi, I think it is a coincidence. Having been on the committee to work on Zymurgy content I can tell you that the topics are generally planned many months to a year or more in advance with several people looking at what areas/topics will be of interest to the homebrewer. It is obviously a case of great minds think alike. Topics can be chosen for many reasons - sometimes what beer would be best brewed for that season, what topics haven’t been covered in a long time or have new information available. Coming up with new ideas and topics for the magazine can always be challenging so if you have ideas of things you would like to see in Zymurgy or think of a topic or style that hasn’t been covered please let Jill know and I am sure she will make every effort to get information into the magazine. Just keep in mind that it may take many months to actually come out in print. And if you have creative talent and want to write then submit an article for publication.
Cheers,
Susan
Time and Newsweek
Sports Illustrated and ESPN the magazine
NBC, CBS, ABC nightly news
Zymurgy and BYO
+1
Competition is healthy.
Wow, that is definitely one heck of a coincidence considering the multitude of topics that could be discussed at any given time. Although I will admit it is interesting to read the articles side-by-side to see the differences, similarities, and get a sense of how different people approach similar topics.
Rest assured, it is purely a coincidence. Speaking for Zymurgy, we strive to provide the most “current” homebrewing topics in the magazine and since Cascadian Dark Ales are hot right now, it’s only natural that BYO would pursue an article about them as well. As Susan mentioned in her post, if there is a particular topic you’d like to see covered in Zymurgy, please drop me a line.
Thanks for reading!
Jill Redding
Editor-in-Chief
Zymurgy
From the horses mouth so to speak. Jill does an awesome job with getting Zymurgy (and those other 
unimportant BA publications) out.
Awesome job Jill !!!
I am not suprised as this is probably the biggest news in beer and brewing at the moment. I am a bit tired of it already, but have found out that I actually enjoy a couple of the commercial examples I have tried.
I agree, and I’m not implying anything to the contrary whatsoever. I just found it odd to see similar articles more often than not.
If there’s any editorial skulduggery going on, I wouldn’t be surprised. The fast paced frenetic world of homebrew journalism breeds a certain cutthroatedness in its participants.
Teasing aside, Jill hit it head on - BYO and Zym both do what’s hot and what interests homebrewers.
Having said that - I’ve recently been appointed to be the lead of the Zymurgy sub committee of the Governing Committee. I’m strongly committed to helping Jill make Zymurgy even more kickass and focused on what you need. So if you have any feedback, anything you feel like we should be doing that we’re not, topics you want to see covered then please drop me a line at drew@maltosefalcons.com and I’ll work with you, Jill and everyone else to see if we can’t make it happen.
We need a rye IPA category too. :
Drew, please tell me the next BA BYOB article is on a black IPA ;D
You know… nope.
But I did add the style to the Falcons guidelines earlier this year… Does that count for something?
Nicely done, hokerer! 8)
I actually enjoyed both articles. Each publication had their own twist along with different recipes. So I saw nothing wrong with both mags featuring the same topic.
Here’s what I think is silly: Two separate people wrote into Zymurgy and complained about the full page Budweiser ads. really, people, you think Zymurgy should turn down a FULL PAGE AD??? ??? Come on back down to reality, people. Magazines stay in business because of ads. As long as they are not morally offensive you don’t turn them down.
+1 just read those two this morning and just have to wonder what the heck these folks are thinking.
You mean Budweiser isn’t morally offensive? ;)
But yeah, totally agree with the above. Read it this morning as well since I only got my copy yesterday. It’s a beer magazine and a beer ad. You take the ads where you can get them.
Edit - Also thought there was a good chance there were more than two letters and those were the two that were chosen as a representative sample to respond to.