[Homebrewers] Fwd: RIP Michael Jackson, Beer Hunter

[Craig Zangari]

--- Rick Sellers <rick at pacificbrewnews.com> wrote:

> From: Rick Sellers <rick at pacificbrewnews.com>
> Subject: RIP Michael Jackson, Beer Hunter
> To: fermentation at goldcountrybrewers.org
> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:52:55 -0700 (PDT)
> 
>  This obit/rememberance is from Lew Brison, it just
>  seemed appropriate,  pr= etty much saying it all -
>  so I'm forwarding it on to you all.
>  
>    ------------------------------------------------
> 
>  Michael Jackson
> 
> = 
>  = = 
>  I just learned that Michael Jackson has died.
> 
>  Jackson w= as immensely influential on all of us:
>  drinkers, brewers, distillers, a= nd of course,
>  writers. (He could be almost too influential; I
>  remember = one writer telling me that he didn't
> read
>  Jackson's work at all any mor= e, because he didn't
>  want to sound too much like Jackson.) His books we
> re bibles for beer and Scotch whisky drinkers --
>  moreso here than in th= e UK, perhaps -- and his
>  tutored tastings were ground-breaking. Jackson= was
>  the first rock star of beer, drawing crowds of
>  admiring fans whene= ver he appeared.
> 
>  I was one of them. I met Michael in the men's r=
> oom
>  at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of
>  Archeology and Anthro= pology, during one of his
>  mass tastings that was part of The Book &= The
> Cook.
>  It was before I even knew what TB&TC was; Michael
>  Jackso= n was in town doing a beer tasting, what
>  else did I need to know? After= the tasting (yes, I
>  took notes, and still have them), Jackson was sign
> ing books and I overheard someone asking him a
>  question about "stock al= e," in the context of the
>  Samuel Adams Boston Ale, then sub-labeled as = a
>  stock ale. MJ gave a somewhat circuitous answer
> that
>  left me still cu= rious (At a TB&TC press breakfast
>  years later, I told him I admired= how he took
>  questions, any question, from a beer audience and
>  answered= in detail. "It's simple," he told me. "If
>  I don't know the answer, I t= ake a sentence or two
>  to speculate, another sentence to note what other
> subject that brings up, and then I just answer the
>  question I want to = answer.").
> 
>  I was a long time in the line for the bathroom
>  afterw= ards, and just as I stepped up to the
>  urinal, I heard some commotion be= hind me: "Pass
>  him up! Oh, please, Mr. Jackson, go ahead! After
>  you!" T= he next thing I knew, there was MJ at the
>  porcelian appliance next to m= e. I took the
>  opportunity to introduce myself, declined an offer
>  to sha= ke hands, and asked him "So the stock ale:
>  is that really a style, like= a New England biere
> de
>  garde, or just an extra-aged ale?" He eyed me, 
> still working, and said, "Well, more age, more hops.
>  It was made, but I= don't know if I'd call it a
>  style." I thanked him, we washed up, and t= hen
>  shook hands. I'd met Michael Jackson.
> 
>  Working with J= ohn Hansell at Malt Advocate gave
> me
>  a lot more chances to tal= k to Michael; he and
> John
>  were good friends. Eventually I would wind up
> editing his column for the magazine. It was not
>  something I looked for= ward to; Michael was a bit
>  of a sloppy writer at times, largely because= of
> the
>  rush he was always in. MJ always had numerous pots
>  boiling at t= he same time, a project here, a
>  project there, trips, visits, lectures,= editing,
>  writing. He was immensely productive: multiple
>  columns in pri= nt and on-line, books on beer and
>  whisky, feature articles, video serie= s, CDs. If
> it
>  was about beer or whisky, he did it.
> 
>  But it was Mi= chael's sense of place that really
>  made his writing so important to me.= When MJ wrote
>  about a beer, he wrote about where it was brewed
> and
>  whe= re people drank it, the look of the walls and
>  the lay of the land, why = the town was there and
>  who the brewer's father was.
> 
>  I remember d= riving Michael around on a tour of
>  area breweries, a day that turned in= to a travel
>  disaster. He was two and a half hours late leaving
>  New York= , thanks to some skinny git who was
> trying
>  and never did open a brewpub= in NYC, but still
>  managed to hold MJ's attention all morning; I
>  suspec= t he simply refused to take him to Tony
>  Forder's house until he'd said all he had to say.
> We
>  had to cancel the appointment at Yards and drive 
> on to Brandywine Brewing near Wilmington in heavy
>  rain.
> 
>  Yet when Michael got there, he calmly pulled out
> his
>  notebook, tasted beer, and = started asking
>  questions...about the rug in front of the
> fireplace.
>  "No= w why is that rug there? It doesn't look like
>  the right place, it doesn= 't really fit with the
>  rest of the room. Is there a spot on the floor? 
> Why that rug?" I was baffled and a bit annoyed; I
>  brought him all this = way to find out about a
> cheap
>  little imitation oriental rug? Dave Dietz= shrugged
>  and said "It's just a rug."
> 
>  But as we slowly, slowly m= ade our way up through
>  heavy rain and ridiculous traffic to the Stoudt'= s
>  Fest, arriving an hour before it ended (MJ made a
>  quick tour of the f= loor, and then locked himself
>  in Carol's office with a bottle of Triple= ), I
>  realized that he was right. The rug didn't fit on
>  the wide expanse= of blonde wood floor. Except it
>  was a touch of softness in an open spa= ce,
>  something interesting. Whether he ever wrote about
>  it or not (and I= never saw anything about it), it
>  was a memory key, a small something t= hat would
>  bring back the whole feel of the place. I learned
>  that trick,= and use it myself.
> 
>  Maybe the most valuable thing I learned from
> Michael Jackson was that importance of place. I
>  learned it second-hand= , because it was actually
>  something he told John Hansell, and John's ha
> mmered it home to me: you can't write about a place
>  if you haven't b= een there. Seems simple, obvious,
>  yet I see writers crossing it ev= ery week. I did.
>  I'm working to overcome that, and to go to the
>  places = I write about.
> 
>  What Michael meant is that it's crucial to go to 
> the place where beer or whisky is made to understand
>  it. I finally went= to Scotland for the first time
>  just last month, and Scotch whisky make= s much
> more
>  sense to me, even though I've been drinking it for
>  years. I= went to Köln and Düsseldorf in January
>  to get my own personal unde= rstanding of kölsch
>  and altbier. I went to Bamberg,= I went to Aying, I
>  went to Andechs. I'm planning a trip to Ireland, an
> d a trip to Belgium. And it's all because of Michael
>  Jackson.
> 
>  Wh= at I do, every day I write, is all because of
>  Michael Jackson. If MJ ha= dn't been there to fire
>  my interest, to show me a path that could be ta
> ken, I'd still be a librarian. I might be happy with
>  that, but I wouldn= 't have had the fun, the late
>  nights with great people, the satisfactio= n of a
>  well-written piece or the satisfaction of opening
>  someone's eyes= to a great beer, if not for Michael
>  Jackson.
> 
>  It's hard to belie= ve he's gone. We all knew he
> was
>  sick, he had been staring down Parkins= on's for
>  years. When I came across him walking to his Monk's
>  dinner wit= h Carolyn Smagalski this past spring,
> he
>  seemed cheery, lucid, and not = so weak as he had
>  been. We greeted each other gladly, and walked on
> to
>  = Monk's. He did a great presentation, good
> stories,
>  much less meandering= than usual. It was the last
>  time I'll see him.
> 
>  Michael Jackson = has died. I'll miss the man, the
>  writer, the friend.
> 
>