Omnivore - World’s premier beer writer and critic dies

I could have titled this blog post “Michael Jackson dies.” But that would have been cheap, although it’s true the world’s most prominent and respected beer writer and critic, who shared a name with the crotch-grabbing king of pop (whose crotch? we’ll never know), has passed away. If Michael Jackson the beer writer had not enjoyed the joke of his name as much as the rest of us (he sometimes wore a single glove as a wink at the hilarity), I’d think it was sad that even at the end of his life, the name is what grabs our attention. But he would have expected as much and laughed at the thought. Jackson’s great sense of humor is part of what made him such an accessible writer.

Jackson’s 1977 book, The New World Guide to Beer, is still considered one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. Since then he has published a series of books on beer and whiskey, and has given the beer world much of its vocabulary and framework for discussing beer.

For the last 10 years he had been living with Parkinson’s disease. You can read his last article, which discusses his disease, titled “Did I Cheat Mort Subite?” at AllAboutBeer.com.