I hpe there's an array of Belgians in heaven....

Michael Jackson Passes Away

No, not that Michael Jackson.

The other Michael Jackson, the world's leading beer critic/scholar/historian/writer, was found dead in his London home last night.

Likely, not many of you have heard of this Michael Jackson. He was possibly the most important driving force in the world-wide beer community over the past 30 years. Starting with his first publication of "World Guide to Beer" in 1977, he has always been a strong voice for the beer community. He helped to bring good beer into the mainstream press, and he has studied the history of beer like no other. He started out as a newspaper reporter, and eventually combined his love of reporting with his love of beer.

Maybe you remember him from his television show called "The Beer Hunter", which aired on PBS during the early 90's. Or, maybe you saw his talk show appearances on either David Letterman or Conan O'Brien. If you are a beer lover, perhaps you have read one of his books or one of the many articles he published.

Over the years, his appearance had become more and more eccentric. His friends thought that maybe his profession was finally getting to him. People often just wrote off his erratic behavior to his being drunk. He revealed the truth in December of 2006; that he had been dealing with Parkinson's Disease for the past 10 years.

His last published article, titled "Did I Cheat Mort Subite?", is a bit of a chilling read after today's news.

This is a sad day, as this is a huge loss for the beer community. He will be missed by his friends and by beer lovers that never had the pleasure of meeting him. For those of us that take pleasure in writing about beer, he is about as good of a role model as one could imagine.

I will definitely be drinking a good beer in honor of Mr. Jackson this evening.