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I’ve been asked to write a piece for the Brewery History Society for a special Michael Jackson edition of their journal. The journal will look at many different aspects of Michael’s beer writing including Beer Styles, the Taste of Beer, Belgian Beer and Craft Beer in the USA. My piece is on Beer Writing in the New Media so I wanted to open it out to people who read and write online to get their thoughts – it seems more pertinent to do this than to just speak to the old media pack. So, a few questions for you, for which I’d be very grateful for responses (which I will use them in the article – feel free to go off-piste and give general thoughts, the questions are there more as a guide):


Do you own any Michael Jackson books? Which? Do you read them regularly, do you use them for reference?


Have you seen any of the Beer Hunter shows online?


If you write a blog then is Michael’s work influential in any way?


Do you read any of his articles held online at Beer Hunter?


Does his influence extend into beer community websites like Rate Beer and Beer Advocate (I’ll be asking this on Rate Beer to see what people over there say)?


I think many take for granted the influence Michael had. In researching this I’ve found that I’d taken it for granted – the language I use to discuss beers is directly a result of the work he did, when I discuss styles it’s only because Michael told the world about them, when I drink a lambic now I can thank Michael for effectively ‘saving’ a style which might have died, when I drink a US craft beer I know that he was a major champion when the world still thought that Bud was the king of US beers.


Any thoughts or comments would be very helpful – I want to know what people currently communicating (reading, speaking, writing or even tweeting) about beer online think about Michael Jackson.



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