MARCH 1998

VOL.3 NO.3

The Celebrator -- A Fond Look Back at 10 Years of Beer News

About seven or so years ago, while on a press trip to California, I stumbled upon an interesting newsprint publication called the Celebrator Beer News. Being unfamiliar with it, and it being available for free, I picked up a copy and brought it home to Toronto with me. Little did I know that in so doing I would begin a relationship destined to endure for many years to come.

At the time, the Celebrator was about 3 1/2 years old and its ownership had been transferred from founders Bret and Julie Nickels to then and present publisher, Tom Dalldorf. It was somewhat crudely executed (in a charming sort of way, of course!) and the writing might not have been at what you might call the Pulitzer level, but it was honest, forthright, and most importantly, completely devoted to beer. I was hooked.

Less than a year later, I first appeared on the masthead as a contributor, with Tom reprinting some of my Toronto Star beer columns. By that issue, significant improvements had been made to the Celebrator even in the short time since I had first discovered it: there were more photos, a tighter layout and eight more pages per issue. The sense that something important was happening within the Celebrator's covers was inescapable, and I was very pleased to be able to be a part of it.

In the six years since, the Celebrator has grown by leaps and bounds, developing into a professional journal I not long ago referred to as the Rolling Stone of beer. The current edition -- a 10th anniversary special -- boasts 68 pages, a glossy cover, lots of colour photos and even a pair of annoying subscription cards just like those I am constantly tearing out of glossies like Esquire and Gourmet. In short, it has become less of a beer newspaper and more of a newsstand-worthy magazine, although I doubt that the Celebrator will ever completely relinquish its "brewspaper" roots, in style or name.

So here's to you, Celebrator! With oatmeal stout in hand, I toast your success and longevity, and wish you nothing but the best for the next ten years and the ten after that. Cheers!

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