brewing website memberships...

[Hoochin'Fool]

If you could only do one "online website membership" (besides HomebrewTalk.com), would you go with:

• Brew Your Own
• Beer and Brewing
• AHA
• Something else?

I'm mostly interested in curated recipes, and mostly for big dark stouts, tho not exclusively that style. Both of the sites linked have tantalized me with recipes that are members-only, and I'm keen to try one of these sites.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I have been subscribing to Brew Your Own since they first hit the news stands. When my printed copy arrives, yes I prefer print, I read it cover to cover. Always great articles and lots of recipes.

That's my vote.

 

[huckdavidson]

The AHA, American Homebrewers Association, has recipes available only to paying members. I believe they're also linked to the Zymurgy magazine.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If you could only do one "online website membership" (besides HomebrewTalk.com), would you go with:

• Brew Your Own
• Beer and Brewing
• AHA

I'm mostly interested in curated recipes

If I had $50/year, Beer and Brewing (digital subscription).

If I had $100/year, I the 1st year would be Beer and Brewing (All Access); each year after that would be Beer and Brewing (digital subscription) and either BYO or AHA.

 

[MaxStout]

AHA has plenty of good recipes, many of which have won awards. If you're going to pay for some membership, AHA is a good place and they do good things to help support homebrewing.

I miss Hopville. It became Brewtoad, and things went downhill from there, eventually closing 5 years ago. It was free access and they couldn't monetize it. I don't think anyone archived it.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

AHA has plenty of good recipes, many of which have won awards. If you're going to pay for some membership, AHA is a good place and they do good things to help support homebrewing.

I miss Hopville. It became Brewtoad, and things went downhill from there, eventually closing 5 years ago. It was free access and they couldn't monetize it. I don't think anyone archived it.

I have a membership to AHA, and yes loads of great recipes! It's almost worth the membership just for the recipes. Great written articles too.

 

[kevin58]

Being retired I am constantly reviewing my expenses. I recently sat down and looked at what I spend on brewing publications and online memberships. I have become so disappointed with the AHA's Zymurgy magazine and their articles that have little to nothing related to beer.
Over the past year I have laid out my BYO and my Zymurgy magazines side by side and in each and every comparison the BYO issues have far more brewing related material that I can use.

Yes, I am losing some saved recipes at AHA but again, after a side by side comparison of what I had saved there vs what I had saved at BYO, I had FAR more recipes saved at BYO... and I had actually made more of the BYO recipes.

So Zymurgy has been cancelled and the only magazine I get now is BYO.

 

[DonT]

I have a membership to AHA, and yes loads of great recipes! It's almost worth the membership just for the recipes. Great written articles too.

This. I also have a Beer & Brewing all access membership because I like the video courses. It's expensive, yeah... I will probably have to reassess that when I retire and go to a fixed income.

 

[MaxStout]

Being retired I am constantly reviewing my expenses. I recently sat down and looked at what I spend on brewing publications and online memberships. I have become so disappointed with the AHA's Zymurgy magazine and their articles that have little to nothing related to beer.
Over the past year I have laid out my BYO and my Zymurgy magazines side by side and in each and every comparison the BYO issues have far more brewing related material that I can use.

Yes, I am losing some saved recipes at AHA but again, after a side by side comparison of what I had saved there vs what I had saved at BYO, I had FAR more recipes saved at BYO... and I had actually made more of the BYO recipes.

So Zymurgy has been cancelled and the only magazine I get now is BYO.

Yeah, Zymurgy is kind of the weak point of AHA membership these days. I'm finding it less useful, and less interesting. Seems they've run out of brewing topic ideas, so they feature other things. I think they try to jump the shark and come up with some bizarre content. Chicha, anyone? Yeah, I want to drink saliva beer. Once in a while I find a cool food recipe, like a homemade pizza a few years ago.

When the mag arrives I can read it in about 10 minutes flat. However, I do enjoy the annual issue with all the winning recipes. That one's a keeper. And I like the online content, like recipes, and access to pdf files of back issues (which you can download!).

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I'm mostly interested in curated recipes, and mostly for big dark stouts, tho not exclusively that style.

If books are an option/alternative, then BYO's "Big Book of Clone Recipes" (2018) is worth a look.

 

[wepeeler]

I do Beer and Brewing, although I've been thinking about trying AHA...

 

[madscientist451]

I miss Hopville. It became Brewtoad, and things went downhill from there, eventually closing 5 years ago. It was free access and they couldn't monetize it. I don't think anyone archived it.

yeah I remember Brewtoad, kind of makes me wonder how much knowledge and information has dissapeared when websites close down.

 

[MaxStout]

If books are an option/alternative, then BYO's "Big Book of Clone Recipes" (2018) is worth a look.

Highly recommend that one.

@Hoochin'Fool, since you mentioned stouts, Terry Foster's Brewing Porters & Stouts (2014) is good reading and has a bunch of recipes in the last chapter.

 

[passedpawn]

yeah I remember Brewtoad, kind of makes me wonder how much knowledge and information has dissapeared when websites close down.

One day HBT will be gone. Comprehend.

 

[MaxStout]

One day HBT will be gone. Comprehend.

 

[Cameronl]

I like BYO's magazine, but the stuff behind the paywall is "meh". I've renewed my print-only subscription for dirt cheap through discountmags.com. I'll keep my AHA membership. I like that I can at the very least see digital copies of all the past issues. Their forum is just ok.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This. I also have a Beer & Brewing all access membership because I like the video courses. It's expensive, yeah... I will probably have to reassess that when I retire and go to a fixed income.

In addition to the videos, I find that the "Brewing Guides" (link, probably behind paywall) are often helpful for focusing on a specific style or subject.

---

I don't think anyone archived [BrewToad].

It's in the Internet Archives Way Back Machine. It looks like some/most of the recipe pages were database driven .

---

caution: shifting from curated recipe sources to content providers

Yeah, Zymurgy is kind of the weak point of AHA membership these days. I'm finding it less useful, and less interesting. Seems they've run out of brewing topic ideas [...]

When the [Zymurgy] mag arrives I can read it in about 10 minutes flat. However, I do enjoy the annual issue with all the winning recipes. That one's a keeper. And I like the online content, like recipes, and access to pdf files of back issues (which you can download!).

+1 for the annual September issue.

I like BYO's magazine, but the stuff behind the paywall is "meh". I've renewed my print-only subscription for dirt cheap through discountmags.com. I'll keep my AHA membership. I like that I can at the very least see digital copies of all the past issues.

One of the potential disappointments of the BYO digital content is the lack of the "original" magazines.

OTOH, a number of book authors that I follow have fresh content at BYO. So, for me, it's currently worth an annual subscription every other year.

 

[rallenhall]

I'm in on both AHA and Beer & Brewing, but for different reasons. AHA is more of a support for the hobby with some benefits while B&B has the videos and a slick publication with lots of well written articles. I typically read in bed at night and one evening my wife looked over and said "Another brewing magazine? ... You were more fun when you read Playboy."

 

[Beekeeper]

 

[CascadesBrewer]

If you could only do one "online website membership" (besides HomebrewTalk.com), would you go with:

Craft Beer & Brewing would be my first choice. The magazine is well done. Honestly, I started paying for the magazine mostly because they had so much great free resources (lots of free articles/recipes on the web site, and the podcast is one of my favorites). Sometimes I am annoyed that some stuff still requires an All-Access or Industry subscription.

I am an AHA member, but I agree that Zymurgy is not the best magazine. I brew beer, but sometimes I feel like they just go out of their way to cover everything other than beer. But they have a ton of great resources...recipes (including medal winning recipes), Homebrew Con sessions...plus I have gotten several books or other items over the years with a renewal.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Looking back, and from my perspective, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were not kind to either Zymurgy magazine or HBC presentations. 2023 had a couple of highlights (especially the Aug 23 Zymurgy Live presentation), but it wasn't the "turn around" I was expecting. (eta: perhaps an aside, perhaps related: to me, it seems that there is a 5-ish year "shelf life" for published content. So most, but not all, of the HBC presentation content from the mid 2010s is pretty well known in forum discussion).

Looking forward, hopefully 2024 will be a better year.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

HomebrewingUK.com

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

It's incredible how the plague impacted every aspect of life and continues in so many.

Looking forward to better things in 2024!
Happy New Year!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

HomebrewingUK.com

Just signed up!

It'll take some time to get used to the English language.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Just signed up!

It'll take some time to get used to the English language.

Google translate does an American-English thing.

 

[David Loy]

I like brewersfriend.com the best

 

[elproducto]

I only have Beer and Brewing, I think their podcast and magazine are top tier.

I dropped Zymurgy, b/c the cost for us in Canada is not worth it as you get very few of the benefits of an AHA membership. I also didn't think the magazine itself was very good, with the exception of the odd article.