Inaugural issue, “First Pour,” coming November 2025
From the Editor
Our relationship, as humans, to alcohol is complex, nuanced, and more importantly, old. History is rich with stories, narratives, and legends that date back thousands of years, as we’ve navigated this experiment we call life. Egyptian, Roman, Sumerian, Japanese—many regions are home to myth and tradition that speak to how humanity first learned to ferment wine from grapes, sake from rice, and sotol from plants, and brew beer from grains. Those same narratives also speak to the cautionary, and the inspired, high lighting just how embedded it has become to socio-cultural life.
The origins of alcohol, whether it be beer, mezcal, soju, distilled palm wine, gin, or vodka, in many ways offer a look into the history of mankind. And places like Göbekli Tepe, a neolithic archaeological site in Turkey; Abydos, an ancient city in Egypt; and Kissonerga-Skalia, a Bronze Age site in Cyprus, hint at just how old and how integral the innovation would become in life. It highlights ingenuity, creative expression, and innovation in what was, and in some cases remains, a truly handcrafted process. It reflects attention to detail, to high-quality ingredients, to sustainability, and to resourcefulness. It speaks to our ability to create, to imagine, and to be curious, harnessing natural processes into a drink that has served to celebrate both the special and the everyday moments in life—often bringing people, history, and aspirations together across time and space.
With the launch of 12 5 33 Magazine, whose name pays homage to the repeal of prohibition, it is important to acknowledge that as uplifting and inspiring as the industry can be today, it has also impacted countless lives and communities. The 18th Amendment was ratified in the United States in 1919 and went into effect in 1920. By 1933, the nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the country would be repealed and a new chapter would unfold. Today, much of the events leading up to it and those that resulted from it have been romanticized, criticized, or simplified, and while it has often been thought of as a uniquely American movement and a “failed, noble experiment,” prohibitionism and temperance “was a truly global movement,” according to Martin Lawrence Schrad, author of “Smashing The Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition” and Associate Professor of Political Science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Schrad, who challenges conventional held wisdom while self-admittedly writing a book on temperance with one of his grandmother’s Manhattans often in hand, draws on archival sources from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. His hypothesis is that “prohibitionism was part of a long-term people’s movement to strengthen international norms in defense of human rights, human dignity, and human equality.” It wasn’t necessarily about drinking culture, or the who, what, and how at the individual level, but about “opposing exploitation and profit,” backed by progressives and reformers across the globe, representing vast and diverse communities—names like Little Turtle, Black Hawk, Mahatma Gandhi, Ida Wells, Frederick Douglass, F.E.W. Harper, Walter Rauschenbusch, Elizabeth Cady Staton, among many others. The saloon of that time was not the saloon of today, where bars, speakeasies, and restaurants have come to serve for many as community space and socio-cultural destination, of conversation and connectedness.
For 12 5 33 Magazine, it is the spirit of craft, the passion for creation, and the penchant for disruption that we seek to highlight in the interviews, the profiles, and conversations we have with the people behind the rich industries of the distilled, the fermented, the nonalcoholic, and functional zero-proof spirits and drinks. We seek to celebrate the stories, the landscape, the destinations, the ingredients, and the traditions—both new and old— that have the ability to bring people together in community. Each issue will include Taste, Traditions, and Travel features, Bar Talk conversations, and Tasting Notes, highlighting news and product-related pieces.
So, as we raise a glass to those who have come before and those who have yet to redefine this dynamic landscape, we welcome you to 12 5 33 Magazine, a national publication highlighting the people and their stories across the globe.
Sláinte.
Rachel J. Weick
Editor | SVK Media and Publishing
12 5 33 Magazine
Please drink responsibly. Do not drink and drive. 12 5 33 Magazine is intended for responsible adults of legal drinking and smoking age, in the United States of America and across the globe. **If you are seeking treatment referral or information on substance abuse, call 1-800-662-HELP for the National Helpline. If you are in crisis, please call, text, or chat with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741
