Issue No. 001 · Inaugural Edition · Spring 2025
Heavy Music · Craft Fermentation · Culture
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
It all started in a
GARAGE -
as all good things do.
A pint of home-brewed ale, a wall of Iron Maiden memorabilia, and one question that wouldn't let go: just how deep does this rabbit hole go?
IF you're anything like me, life has two essential ingredients: heavy metal and something cold to drink — ideally both at the same time. I'm guessing that description fits you pretty well, or you wouldn't be reading this right now? So welcome. You found your people.
The story of how Fermented Metal came to exist is the kind that only makes sense in retrospect. A few months ago, I found myself freshly laid off from a job I'd held for a decade, hosting a Super Bowl party, and pulling pints from a Pinter keg filled with my very first home-brewed batch — a recipe called "Trooper Remixed." My old drummer John was over, and as I handed him a glass he said, almost offhand, "You know, Iron Maiden has a load of different beers."
"Oh, I know," I said. And then I walked him out to the garage.
"There, among the memorabilia, was the bottle collection. We stood looking at it, and I said: 'There are styles I still don't have.' That question wouldn't leave me alone."
We stood there among the Iron Maiden memorabilia — the posters, the figures, the framed artwork — and the beer bottle collection arranged along one wall. I looked at it and said, almost to myself, "There are styles I still don't have." And then the question arrived: How many Iron Maiden beers are actually out there? And beyond that — how many metal bands have done this? How many breweries, distilleries, and wineries have built a collaboration with the world of heavy music?
That question refused to leave me alone. And here's the thing about being laid off after ten years: you find yourself with a choice. You can treat it as a setback, or you can treat it as the shove you needed. At a certain crusty age, I've learned that the only sane response to that kind of crossroads is to follow your passions and see where they lead.
WHAT THIS IS
So here we are. Fermented Metal exists to answer that question — and to keep asking bigger ones. Because the more I have dug, the more I found: a rich, sprawling, largely undocumented world where heavy metal culture and craft fermentation have co-existed for years. Independent breweries naming beers after classic thrash songs. Distillers pressing their bottles with custom artwork like metal album covers. Bands partnering with craft producers to bottle something as carefully considered, and with as much energy as those albums.
This magazine is here to document all of it — with the obsession it deserves.
What we'll cover
Liquor, beer & wine labels: the new album cover
The bottle has become a canvas. We explore the artists, designers, and bands treating their labels with the same seriousness as a record sleeve. This magazine is here to document all of it — with the obsession it deserves.
Pubs, dive bars & venues
From a corner pub in Birmingham to a dive bar in Detroit: we document the venues around the world that have made metal feel at home.
The collections: show us your metal cave
We want to see your home bar, your memorabilia wall, your custom pub corner. Send us your collection — we'll give it the feature it deserves.
To the brewers & distillers
Why metal? We sit down with the craft producers who chose a heavy theme, and find out what the music means to the people behind the mash.
To the bands
Why a beer? What's it like to hand your name to a brewer and trust them with it? We go behind the collaboration, from first conversation to finished bottle.
Hangovers & hearing loss
A dedicated space to honor metalheads who've gone sober — their stories, their wisdom, and the culture they still carry with them.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Independent scenes built on passion. We celebrate the bands, breweries, and fans who keep those roots alive.
The Underground
The Culture
Taprooms, venues, and dive bars are gathering places. We exist to document them.
The Craft
A crushing riff and a perfectly balanced stout share the same DNA: time, skill, and obsession.
Curiosity
New beers. New bands. New collaborations. These worlds never stop evolving — and neither do we.
Authenticity
We tell stories about real people and real culture. Hype fades. Authenticity lasts.
Volume
These cultures deserve a voice that understands both. We keep it loud.
We're not a trade publication, and we're not a marketing platform. We are fans — collectors, home brewers, show-goers, and people who have stood in a garage at midnight explaining to a friend exactly why there are forty-seven different bottles on that shelf. We built this for you, and we built it for ourselves.
This is issue one. There will be more. Find us in the places you already know: the taproom after the show, the brewery that named its double IPA after a Sabbath track, the festival where the merch table is right next to the craft beer tent. We'll be the ones taking notes.
— The Editor, Fermented Metal
Raise a glass. Turn it up!