Scott over at the Brew Club has posted a remembrance of the beer hunter Michael Jackson on the third anniversary of his passing, and it made me realize that I’ve never really read any of his work. That’s right, I’ve built my entire craft beer education without reading the master.
That’s not to say that I don’t read – I do – books, magazines, websites, you name it. But I’m learning about beer from the generation that learned about beer from Michael Jackson. And while it exposes a gap in my knowledge (everyone should read the Beer Hunter’s work, right?) it’s also pretty cool.
It shows that Mr. Jackson was successful in his life’s work of promoting the creation and consumption of great beer. He was such a success that others have been inspired to take up the cause, and that’s his legacy – a robust and ever-expanding universe of craft brewers and enthusiastic beer nerds.
We brew for each other, teach each other and all evangelize for the consumption of better beer. And we all owe a debt of gratitude to Michael Jackson for dedicating his charms, talents and time to the cause of craft beer.
I think I need to pick up a book.
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
I’d lend you the one I have, but given it’s completely about Belgium, I’m not sure how much you’ll wanna read it, LOL.
You got that right!
Wuss! BTW, had the Cerize as soon as I got home Saturday since it was nice and cold, and MAN was that YUMMY!!!!! I need to go find me some more of that! Where did you buy it?
Liquor Outlet (of course) but it’s a seasonal and I think they’re out. You might try Crown – sometimes they have dusty goodies.
I wouldn’t recommend reading any of his later-in-life stuff. It’s, how to say it nicely, not so coherent. All of his original beer guides are, of course, golden.
I’m sure I’ll check his beer guides out eventually, but with so much info available on the web now, guide books are hard to get into anymore.
You’ll just have to remind yourself when he put together the guide books the Internet wasn’t really out there yet. So if you take his less coherent work as your read of choice, remember he was a pioneer that was later afflicted and struck down all too soon. Just keep it in perspective if you read his later stuff jim, as I know you have a habit of thinking everything that isn’t new sucks.
That’s not true, Don. I’m not new and I don’t suck! 😉
That’s what she said… 😉
My Brother and I, who interestingly go by the “Beer Brothers” are very familiar with Michael and were lucky enough to have met with him a number of times. I wanted to write more about beer myself, but after reading Micheal’s work, I figured it was already done. We have only been in the industry for 15 years and our current competition is all kids. I say, welcome to the fray. If you are interested in the Beer Brothers, please come to our beer festival, Brewtopia Great World Beer Festival (I am not responsible for the name) in NYC where we are running our 8th Show. We are also affiliated with some beer bars in NYC. See in all worldbeerfest.com, Davidcopperfields.com and hopdevil.com Cheers to Michael. He was one of the best.
Looks like a nice line up this year Bill. October 1st is coming up fast!
Ahh, OK, maybe it’s part of it…Brewers Choice looks good…food/beer pairing and such. May hit that one.
Is that on the heels of Craft Beer Week?! Cuz that ends the last few days of September if I remember right.
Looks like Craft Beer Week runs through to October 3rd, but there aren’t any events listed past the 30th: http://www.nycbeerweek.com/events/
Thanks for the link guys! I’ll admit not even knowing who Micheal Jackson was (either of them!) until Bob the Brit filled me in. Still so much to learn! Its interesting that his site is still up and there are some interesting videos there worth watching.
http://michaeljacksonthebeerhunter.blogspot.com/
The loss of this guy is still something the beer world has not recovered from. I’m still looking for an expert that comes close to this gent.