is an occupation where a journalist or author’s primary area of expertise involves writing about beer, brewing, and related topics. Although the number of full-time beer writers is growing as interest in beer increases, the number remains relatively small compared with many other similar fields, such as wine writing or food writing. Many beer writers also cover related topics or other alcoholic beverages such as wine, spirits, or cocktails. Others write part-time while working at an entirely different job, although sometimes within the beer industry.

British writer Michael Jackson is generally credited with creating the profession of beer writer when he began writing exclusively about beer and whiskey in the mid-1970s. See jackson, michael.

In the UK, the British Guild of Beer Writers was founded in 1988 as a trade association “to improve standards of beer writing and extend the public knowledge of beer” and includes, in addition to writers, photographers, illustrators, broadcasters, and people working in public relations. Currently, the British Guild of Beer Writers has over 150 members.

In the United States, the North American Guild of Beer Writers was active through the 1990s but ceased operations before 2000 because of a decline in the number of beer publications paralleling a drop in the craft beer industry during the same period of time. As of the close of 2010, several North American beer writers were making plans to launch a new Beer Writers Guild. In the meantime, as within other areas of writing, beer writing online has proliferated.

As the craft beer industry rebounded beginning in the late 1990s, so too did the number of magazines devoted to covering beer. Today there are more beer magazines, both trade and consumer publications, than at any time prior, offering increased opportunities for writers whose expertise includes beer. Some of the most popular beer magazines in the US include All About Beer, BeerAdvocate, Beer Connoisseur, Beer Magazine, Beer West (covering the American west coast), the Celebrator Beer News, and DRAFT. The Brewing News produces seven regional beer newsprint publications and the Ale Street News publishes one nationwide, with additional inserts in select regions. In addition, there are magazines devoted to all beverages, including beer, such as Imbibe and Mutineer. Homebrewing periodicals include Brew Your Own and Zymurgy, which is published by the Brewers Association.

Likewise, a renewed interest in beer has also created an increased demand for books on the subject, and in the past decade the number of beer books has grown exponentially, with perhaps more in print today than at any time in history.

Beer books examine the topic from a variety of angles, including the tried and true traditional subjects like brewing textbooks and related technical literature, guidebooks, histories, and breweriana. But many new subgenres have risen in popularity, such as books on beer appreciation, brewer memoirs, homebrewing, cookbooks, and books on food and beer pairings.

Michael Jackson’s World Guide to Beer (1977; updated 1991) and his later Beer Companion (1993; updated 1997) were two of the most influential early books on beer and set the standard for later offerings.

Homebrewing is the most popular type of beer book, with Charlie’s Papazian’s The Joy of Homebrewing having seen three additions, 25 reprintings, and nearly a million copies sold.

Despite the up-to-the-minute information on the Internet, guidebooks to microbreweries and beer travel continue to be popular, with several publishers even expanding their series of guides to breweries within a particular state.

In the past few years, books educating readers on beer appreciation are feeding the public’s appetite for knowledge about the intricacies of enjoying beer. A few notable examples include Randy Mosher’s Tasting Beer (2009), The Naked Pint (2009), by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, and two by University of California Davis professor of fermentation studies Charlie Bamforth, Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us (2010) and Grape vs. Grain (2008).

Garrett Oliver’s 2003 book, The Brewmaster’s Table, although not the first book on food and beer, sparked a resurgence on the subject, leading to renewed interest in beer and food, both for pairing the two and for cooking with it.

More recently, writing about beer has expanded online, and the number of beer blogs has exploded, written by both professional writers creating an online presence for themselves and amateur beer bloggers launching writing careers through their work online. There are estimated to be more than 700 blogs devoted to beer, many with large followings. In the fall of 2010, the first Beer Bloggers Conference was held in Boulder, Colorado, with just over 100 beer bloggers in attendance, with both a US and a UK conference scheduled for subsequent years.