Contributor Guidelines

Zymurgy is the Journal of the American Homebrewers Association. It is published six times a year (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December) and has a circulation of more than 38,000 (as of January 2013). Readers are typically homebrewers of beer, mead, and cider.

How to Send a Query to Zymurgy

Your first step should be to read the magazine to become familiar with our style as well as the kinds of articles we publish. Then submit a brief written query via email to editor-in-chief Jill Redding that summarizes your idea and explains why you’re the writer to bring the story to our readers. When proposing an article, keep in mind that we generally assign stories at least three months prior to an issue's cover date.

Don't simply offer your services for whatever stories we may be looking to assign. Queries give us a chance to see how a prospective writer's mind works. (Stories proposed by our editors almost always are assigned to writers we have already worked with and/or various experts in the field.)

The best places for writers to break into the magazine are The Last Drop (500 words) and feature articles (1,500-2000 words).

Feature articles are typically closely matched to the established themes for each issue (generally established each summer for the following calendar year) and are generally homebrewing related. Many feature stories will include at least one original homebrew recipe that is typically based on 5 gallons. When possible and applicable, an extract version of an all-grain recipe (or vice versa) should be included.

The Last Drop is a light-hearted look at anything homebrewing (or beer) related.

Due to a large volume of queries, please do not expect an immediate response. If assigned a story, you will be required to sign a contract that grants the Brewers Association first-time North American rights to publish the article in both print and electronic formats. Fees for articles vary.

Assigned articles should be submitted on or before the specified due date in a Microsoft Word document that is single-spaced (with breaks between paragraphs) and in 12-point Times New Roman font. A brief author’s bio (2-3 sentences) should be included at the end of the article. Any applicable photos should be sent separately rather than embedded in a Word document.