Why You Should Ignore Men's Magazines When It Comes To Beer

First off, a comment:  Why is there this certain sexism against vapid "men's" magazines that isn't there against similarly vapid "women's" magazines?  In almost every library I walk into today, I will find a copy of Cosmopolitan on the shelves, along with copies of similar magazines such as Glamour, Lucky, and Vogue.   Yet it is difficult, if not impossible, to find magazines such as Maxim, Esquire, FHM (now extinct in the US), and the like on the same shelves.  Don't tell me it's the content; the stuff in a typical issue of Cosmo is just as sexual or raunchy as anything Maxim or the like have to offer.

Anyhow.....

Philly's beer bloggers Joe Sixpack (Don Russell) and Jack Curtin (Eastern Pa. columnist for MABN) are having fun with the Feb. 2010 issue of Maxim, in which they publish a six-page article of "The 25 Best New Beers in America" (PDF download--not recommended for dial-up readers).  Maxim nominates Philadelphia as their "favorite beer burg".

But surprisingly few of the beers are actually "new."  According to Curtin, Victory Helios is simply a re-naming of Victory's Saison, which has been around for a couple years; similarly, Sly Fox's Phoenix Pale Ale has been around since 2002 and was first canned in 2006.  Dogfish Head Indian Brown, which also makes the list, has been around for over a decade.   So has North Coast's Old Stock Ale, released every winter in vintage-labeled bottles.  And I can personally attest that New Glarus' Fat Squirrel has been around at least seven years, having bought it on my first trip to Wisconsin.

There's also a Baltimore beer in that august line-up, rated as "chug easy," which has also been around for quite a few years:

Based on a traditional Oktoberfest brew, this poundable Bodymore native has hints of syrup-drenched French toast, toffee, and street-corner shootings.

Maxim, if you want to be taken seriously............  oh, why bother?  It's obvious they don't.  We're guessing this article was assembled by the interns mentioned at the end, who just turned 21 and were turned loose in a good beer store for the first time.  But, hey--no such thing as "bad publicity," right?  If Clipper City's crew sent samples to Maxim, well, it worked!  (UPDATE: A phone call reveals they did indeed send them beer--"but that's not the bottle we sent them...")

(What, who, me?  Just using this as an excuse to justify adding a cover picture of a scantily-clad Amanda Bynes?  I resemble that remark!  It's not like I'm, you know, sending y'all to the slide show of Bynes photos or anything...... Like that's going to drive up my hits or anything.  Everyone knows beer geeks that read beer blogs are too dorky to land or be interested in hot women, right?)