I fly to America every other month on average. I have been doing this for more than 20 years, and have visited every state. I come here for the beer…and interviewers still don’t believe me.
— Michael Jackson, 2001
Michael Jackson (1942-2007) was a bewhiskered, professorial Yorkshireman in spectacles and wearing a succession of loud beer-themes neckties, equally proud of his working class English roots and a grandfather’s Lithuanian Jewish heritage, the latter periodically referenced by references to Baltic Porter’s exotic hinterlands.
He introduced Belgian ale to the world, and Belgian brewers to each other. Most importantly, he popularized a taxonomy of beer styles, and while this is a subject for augmentation, revision and seemingly endless current debate, it’s hard to imagine contemporary beer and brewing without such a conceptual framework.
Lest there be any confusion (really, could there?), be assured I’m speaking here of Jackson the accomplished journalist and pioneering beer writer, who...
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