UK Homebrewing Magazine?

VillageBrew said:

I'd be up for that - I'd subscribe / buy it and would love to contribute.
Don't know much about digital versions - being an Android-type with a strong aversion to anything Apple-based my blood generally gets to strike water temperature when I see digital versions of mags offered only via iPad route.
Equally, cannot pass the magazine section in a supermarket without picking up a shooting/ motorbike/ Land Rover magazine...

I have searched for UK based mags and was thinking about importing a US one but SWMBO has probably alerted UK Border Force already

Click to expand...

Thanks, my sketchy initial research tells me that there are plenty of services for digital publication that you can use that will be cross platform as they are mostly web based rather than through a particular vendor like Apples Newstand. Although I am using Apple stuff myself (have to for work before anyone sticks the boot in!) I cant understand why anyone would limit market/readership in that way for something like this

I will let you use my future pubs name.

The slurp and burp.
Your monthly guide to homebrew/winemaking

cornyandy said:

I'll work on a name. I am usually pretty good at things like that. But it will take time to get it right. "Hopping Mad" "Homebrew Heaven" "Malts and More" Quick ideas.

Click to expand...

You need to start planning internet searches in from the get go. Page/site titles still contribute towards the likelihood that you will be found. 'Hopping Mad' doesn't contain words that people will search on, any title containing the word 'Homebrew' will be more likely to feature.

nigelnorris said:

You need to start planning internet searches in from the get go. Page/site titles still contribute towards the likelihood that you will be found. 'Hopping Mad' doesn't contain words that people will search on, any title containing the word 'Homebrew' will be more likely to feature.

Click to expand...

So UK Homebrew, boring, but internet findable! I win. :lol:

MyQul said:

So UK Homebrew, boring, but internet findable! I win. :lol:

Click to expand...

To truly harness the power of the internet you need to take risks. 'Naked Homebrew' that sort of thing. Worked for Jamie Oliver

Actually thinking about it that's from the wrong direction, so many search results contain the word 'naked' you'd never get found.

Good idea, I would subscribe. Only been doing this for a short time but would be happy to contribute if you wanted anything from a novice point of view :mrgreen:

ukhomebrewing.com and .co.uk are both available, that would be a start

I have Google Ad words but "Home brewing magazine" is a very low search term worldwide ie. not many people are looking for this.

nigelnorris said:

To truly harness the power of the internet you need to take risks. 'Naked Homebrew' that sort of thing. Worked for Jamie Oliver

Actually thinking about it that's from the wrong direction, so many search results contain the word 'naked' you'd never get found.

Click to expand...

......and some may take it literally leading to an expensive lawsuit and 3rd degree burns!

Two and a half suggestions would be

UKBrew or YouBrew / (YouBru) UK.


I first thought of WeBrew but that would only apply if your beer was P!ss poor!

geetee said:

Two and a half suggestions would be

UKBrew or YouBrew / (YouBru) UK.


I first thought of WeBrew but that would only apply if your beer was P!ss poor!

Click to expand...

There's already a company down by me in bermondsey called Ubrew

https://ubrew.cc/

MyQul said:

There's already a company down by me in bermondsey called Ubrew

https://ubrew.cc/

Click to expand...

OK , what about YouBrewIt

I have some experience in starting a magazine, although not a great deal. I studied music in Brighton as my 3rd year project I started a music magazine, wanted to be a Brighton centric version on the Fly.

Print was way to expensive so I started online with the view of expanding to print sometime in the future and it did well. Without going into boring detail, this would be a good way to start. It's easy to make a Joomla/WordPress magazine, put advertising on there and save the money for print if that's the way you wanna go.

Obviously, this is massively paraphrased. But this is interesting. I would really like a UK version of BYO, brewing advice, recipes, tests to debunk brewing myths, and all in metric units!

I really like writing and I have a homebrew blog of my own, but a larger site sounds good and would like to write/help out where possible. I think to get started it would be possible to get some shops on board and for them to advertise it on their site to get the readership up, plus there's the forums.

I'll be honest, I didn't see this thread had 4 pages and after going through the first page TLDR so apologies if I'm repeating someone earlier.

So I started reading through the other posts and noticed there's a discussion about the name and SEO. In my day job I'm a technical SEO manager and can tell you when naming a site it has no affect on rankings these days. Calling the site Homebrew UK will not make the site appear high in the searches for that keyword, and as it's probably quite competitive it's more likely you'll shoot yourself in the foot by doing that.

For a name, it needs to be easily spelt and not complicated. If you have to spell it out when telling someone over the phone it isn't a good name.

just remembered. In London, we get the London Drinker magazine which is produced by CAMRA http://www.london.camra.org.uk/londondrinker. It's distributed for free and probably paid for by advertising.
That's another route you might look at. Distribute the magazine for free and pay for it by adverts. This is a very popular way for print magzines/newspapers, in London at least, nowadays. We have two daily commuter newspapers and a weekly listings mag (which used to be paid for), that I'm aware of., which follow this model.

Could be some long term strategy in distributing the digital copy for free and offering paper copies for a charge. Then after a year or so, start charging for the digital version too. As long as you make clear from the start that ultimately you will have to start charging, nobody can complain, but hopefully by this point you'll have a network of contacts, contributors and people who want the magazine.

For **** sakes I ran out off the good stuff, and went to sainsburys for a top up lol
I Could not find the home brew mag anywhere
Come on really is it not published yet :smile::smile::hmm:

I have a digital subscription to the American magazine Craft Beer and Brewing and whilst decent, it doesn't have enough on brewing.

Something like this would be great for the community. A craft beer review section and interviews with professional brewers would also be good additions in my opinion.

I'd love to subscribe! I'm always trying to seek out UK based articles and books, because so many of the American articles and books just make me do a lot of conversions and make me jealous of all the bits of kit you can buy there for not much money. So, I will read, if you do it!!

Thanks for all the ideas everyone, keep them coming! Lots of good names as well, difficult to find something that isnt already used or extremely similar to something else though. My working title of brew it yourself not only exists as a book already but someone also has a webpage/blog of that name

Seems like there is a good level of interest which is really positive and its great that so many are interested in possibly contributing as well.

As a couple of people have mentioned I think the starting point would probably be a free digital magazine that can hopefully build up subscribers and therefore interest from advertisers before maybe moving to paid subscription and a print version could be something to consider long term.

Looking at what I had in mind and some of the ideas suggested on here this is the sort of thing I reckon should be in an issue:

Features - 3/4 per issue with a focus on technique/method, new ingredients, a particular style or type of beer, brewing theories and experiments and also events etc

Regular sections or articles:
Equipment Review
Book Reviews
Letters/Q&A
Reader Recipe/s
DIY Project
Hop review/profile with recipe
Kit Brewing - New kits available, a review, kit mods and partial recipe etc
Pro brewing - Microbrewery profile/interviews
Commercial beer review
Final word style opinion pieces at the end

What do you think? Any glaring omissions?

I do think you need to contact potential advertisers. Home brew shops, Manufacturers, perhaps even micro brewers. it would offset some costs and give you an in to get kits for reviews free of charge. Networking could be the key.