OnTap Magazine

It has been five years since On Tap launched and in those five years, the man who started the mag has never been seen in print. We thought it was time that changed, so we asked our publisher, advertising guru and top notch networker Andrew Thomas to tell us the story of how On Tap began. I t all started with a big bang. No, of course it didn’t, that’s a TV programme. It began over a boozy lunch in April 2016 – I’ll never forget it. There was plenty of good wine and plenty of guys drinking Castle Lite from the bottle, but not much in the way of craft beer. I hadn’t really been exposed to craft beer back then, but that was about to change. Five months later, issue one of On Tap was out. Allow me to elaborate. At the aforementioned boozy lunch I was with a group of about ten people when one of my mates shouted, or rather slurred, “Hey, Andrew, is there a beer magazine in South Africa?” Being in the publishing business I thought about it momentarily and replied, “I have absolutely no idea.” And that’s where the thought ended. Three months later I was sitting in my office, twiddling my thumbs. I decided to google ‘craft beer South Africa’ and a tsunami of information came crashing onto the screen: craft beer this, craft brew that, all in SA! I started to think that there was really something special going on, and surely there must be a local or at least an international craft beer magazine available on the shelves. I headed to Exclusive Books,. excited but also quietly hoping there wasn’t a local beer mag in existence. RESEARCH BEGINS I began to scour the shelves: nothing. I asked at info desks and checked on databases: still nothing. That’s when I started to think there might be an opportunity here; literally a gap in the market. Back at my laptop I started searching who’s who in the local craft brew scene. I needed to know how many craft brewers there were, who, and where. Was there actually a need for a craft beer magazine? If so, I’d need an editor – but who? I knew didley squat about craft beer and beer brewing. The WortHogs Brewers, a Gauteng homebrewing club, appeared on my screen and the name Kevin Ryan (the late Kevin, bless his soul) came up. I called him and explained my idea. He was excited to hear what I had to say and suggested that we meet for lunch. The next day we met at Craft in Parkhurst, a restaurant with a wide selection of craft beers on tap. (I liked the sound of the words “on tap”, they resonated with me. Beer on tap, now who doesn’t like that? Anyway, I digress). I had my first ever Weiss beer and man it was good. I was a convert. Kevin told me the industry was desperate for a beer magazine. I explained that for a magazine to be successful the most important ingredient is the editor. In this case someone who knows the industry and understands beer. Did he have any recommendations? He told me that if you were to speak to 20 people in the industry, 18 would name the same person: Lucy Corne. FINDING FUNDING So the next day I called Lucy. Disaster: she was in negotiations to join the team of a startup craft beer tabloid but agreed to give it some thought. I was already thinking that I’d found my editor. I tried to convince her that being the editor of a beer magazine would be far more rewarding than some crappy old tabloid (I probably didn’t use the word crappy but you know what I mean). And a day later she called me back. The tabloid was going nowhere: she was in, box ticked and we were off. We needed a name for the magazine and after a little toing and froing we settled on “On Tap” (the words still resonate): another box ticked. I now had an editor (a brilliant one at that) and a great publication name (one that continues to resonate), so the next step was to finance the production of the ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2021 | 7