Chris Colby, with Mike Simmons in the background.

On June 24, 2013, James Spencer and I launched Beer and Wine Journal, a website covering home beer brewing and . . . something else. I forget. It’ll come to me soon. That makes us one year old today. In the 365 days since then, we’ve managed to post 384 articles, an average of slightly more than 7 per week. We’ve taken a “just the facts” approach to explaining the nuts and bolts of homebrewing, with opinion pieces few and far between (and hopefully with enough humor to justify publishing them). We’ve garnered a lot of readers, and are having fun doing it.

In the fall, we are going to make a couple changes. For one thing, by then we should have a makeover — or at least a logo. We’re homebrewers making a website, not website folks or graphic designers doing a homebrew site, and we know the site looks a bit “plain Jane” right now. More importantly, we’re going to start adding video segments occasionally. But don’t worry, the full text of every article will be posted along with any of these segments. So, you won’t have to sit through a video to get the information if you’d rather just read (or skim) the article.

James Spencer (left) and Steve Wilkes (right).

As we begin to plan for “brewing season” in the fall, we’re curious to hear what you’d like to see covered. Write to me or James and let us know if there’s some topic that you’re curious about. Also, what do you want to see more of in general? (Recipes? Brewing techniques? Ingredient profiles? Equipment? Brewing science? Beer styles? Experiments? Adventurous brews? Reader questions? Uranus jokes?)

And finally, if you enjoy reading Beer and Wine Journal and would like to help us out, here are some things you can do. First and foremost, keep reading! The more traffic the site gets, the better. Secondly, if you think one of our articles might be of interest to any of your brewing friends, share it on social media and help us get the word out. [You can also “like” our page on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter (@BeerWineJournal). We average one post/tweet a day, so you don’t have to worry about us clogging up your feed.] Thirdly, if you’re shopping online, start at our site and (if possible) navigate to the website of your choice by clicking on one of the ads on our pages. And finally, you can support us directly, if you’d like. In the right column of our website, there are buttons that let you donate or subscribe (for as low as a buck a month – far less than the cost of a pint these days). Every little bit helps and will contribute to bringing you bigger, better website. (And a huge thanks to everyone who is already supporting us. James and I raise our glasses to you!)

Now, let our second year begin!

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