Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, & Discovering Self
32 pages
Courtney Iseman
https://linktr.ee/courtiseman
Bean to Barstool
https://linktr.ee/beantobarstool
Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, & Discovering Self is a US half-fold sized, full colour zine about tarot, craft beer, brewing, how it all ties together, and more.
“…the vital takeaway about Tarot is that it’s really a fascinating and frankly quite handy way of looking at the world and our lives, of processing our past, being grounded in our present, and framing what we want for the future.”
Beautifully written!
First off, I would like to point out how much I love this idea. At first I thought, “Beer and tarot? That’s an unexpected combination.” But the more I think about it, the more fabulous it seems! Some beers and pull out the tarot cards at the pub? Yes, please.
We open with a table of contents and all the creation of this zine details your heart could desire on the inside cover and then an introduction to the author herself (which includes a glorious picture with Courtney and her adorable pug). From there, we launch into a history of tarot, and what a history it is.
Courtney’s writing style is knowledgeable and inviting. Teaching you without lecturing you, she invites you into a world that you may or may not have any experience with. She smoothly brings you from the beginning of tarot’s story all the way to modern day where tarot’s resurgence is, in many spaces, forming a tie with craft beer and pubs. Not only that, it’s clear through her words that she has a passion for both subjects as well as how they tie together. Nothing comes across as dry or purely factual, and I love it.
We then get to read an interview with Nacim Menu who is co-owner of a tarot-themed craft brewery l’Ermitage Nanobrasserie in Brussels, and I found one of my favourite quotes about tarot:
“As always with Tarot, you don’t look for it, it comes to you.”
We’re treated to a series of beer Tarot readings pulled from Tvre Brewing’s custom deck followed by an interview with Max Sherman, Tvre’s graphic designer who created the Tvre Brewing deck! Yes, I am excited enough to use an exclamation for that. (Special side note: The subtitle of this interview is ‘How Craft Beer’s Most Metal Brewery Fully Embraced Tarot’, and I absolutely adore how metal has been worked into the mix in this zine too.) Max even gives us a look into the process of creating the deck, which took over a year.
I don’t usually write out the contents of a zine to such an extent, but this zine is totally to my taste (pun fully intended) both in the individual pieces as well as the whole. The zine itself is text heavy, but the font and font size are all good, and the design elements add some lovely aesthetics and relaxation for the mind. (As in, I don’t think I’m sitting down to study a dense textbook even though I am getting a lot of information.) Even the progression of the pieces – history of tarot, interview, readings, interview, wrapping up with a relaxing type of interview about beer, food, and tarot – flows so nicely.
Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, & Discovering Self is an all-around excellent zine that taught me a lot and had me hooked from page one until the end. It is informative, visually pleasing, and connects subjects I wouldn’t have otherwise connected. I absolutely recommend checking this one out.
