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SPECIAL


20 Years of All About Beer

What in the world possessed the men who founded All About Beer? Yes, the first US microbrewery was a few years old and CAMRA was established in England. A number of beer malcontents were poised to challenge the state of beer in the United States by opening their own breweries—but not yet. No exactly a beer groundswell in search of a magazine. Were the AAB founders blessed with the gift of prophesy?

Then & Now - All About Beer 20 years ago and Today

No, says Mike Bosak, the most constant presence in the magazine for its first 13 years. In the late ‘70s, after a life in the printing business, he was determinded to start have a publication of his own. With six other print and publishing professionals, he set about identifying a likely field.
“ I began to see in liquor store windows signs that said ‘Five imported beers sold here,’ ‘Ten imported beers sold here.’I realized that no one had a publication about beer,” and All About Beer was born.
For its first three years, All About Beer was a broadsheet—the original brewspaper—but with Hollywood connections. Thanks to art and production manager Terry Bratcher, the early issues featured beer-oriented interviews with Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, and —once the publication turned into a magazine—Rodney Dangerfield and Arnold Schwartzenegger.
When the origional team of seven went their separate ways, the magazine was given to MacMullen Publishing, where it languished as a training ground for new employees. Mike Bosak acquired—and rescued— the entire magazine in 1988.
Mike and his wife Bunny, who conducted several of the early celebrity interviews, are retired now. Mike gets together with beer wizard Jim Robertson once a year to tour the best beer spots in southern California.

 

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This story originally appeared in All About Beer Magazine in March 2001.


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